Technicity 2016

Fawn Annan is the President, Chief Marketing Officer and Group Publisher of IT World Canada/IDG Canada. She is also partner and CMO for Haliburton’s Digital Reno, a new story-telling agency created to use the power of brand journalism to bring innovative video, podcast and written content to companies seeking to increase their online audience. Ms. Annan is Chair of the Canadian Channel Chiefs Council, sits on the Ontario Board of the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) and serves on the national board of Canadian Women in Communications and Technology (WCT). Ms. Annan has operated her own business and held senior positions in marketing and strategy with a variety of firms. In 2012 she received the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Award for her contribution to the IT industry.

Hussam Ayyad began his career as a system analyst at the Commercial Bank of Dubai, developing e-banking applications. Years later; responding to his inner voice, he took a leap out of banking to undertake an adventure of co-founding a metal recycling business in North Africa and spent the next seven years building it to a successful company from the ground up, where he was responsible for developing and executing its overall growth strategy and for building strategic partnerships, which resulted in growing the company’s revenue to exceed USD 65 million in 2008 and embrace a workforce of 100+ workers and professionals. He also pursued other successful entrepreneurial initiatives in different countries. In 2014, Hussam took on the role of Startup Services Group Manager at Communitech in Kitchener, Ontario, where he advised, coached and managed a portfolio of 100+ tech startups, and was responsible for leading customer acquisition and strategic partnership programs that provided unique opportunities for entrepreneurs and high-growth tech ventures to acquire fortune 500 companies and other large enterprises as early adopters, clients or strategic partners. Hussam holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Software Engineering from the University of Western Ontario, and a Master of Business Entrepreneurship and Technology from the University of Waterloo.

Antoine is the cofounder and CTO of Thirdshelf, an AI-driven loyalty marketing startup that helps SMB retailers retain their customers and grow their businesses. Prior to that, Antoine was the founder and CEO of Mobilogie, an award-winning mobile consulting firm that helped hundreds of companies develop mobile strategies and applications. A respected leader in innovative digital technologies, Antoine is a regular speaker at many conferences around the world such as DX3, Digital Signage Expo, and AdTech, and a mentor and judge at various startup events.Antoine holds a Computer and Biomedical Engineering Masters from the University of Nice, France, as well as a Computer Engineering Bachelor’s degree from the École Polytechnique de Montréal. He held technology leadership positions at firms such as Mozilla, Siemens, and MIT.

Since 2010, Peter Bak has led the design and implementation of Humber River Hospital’s digital vision. With over 25 years of experience in Healthcare IT, Peter has extensive expertise in software engineering, systems design and IT implementation. Bak is recognized as a global leader in image enabling Electronic Health Records and assists government initiatives in Shanghai and Hong Kong. He was recently named 2016 CanadianCIO of the Year (Private sector.) He has a PhD in Applied Engineering from Imperial College in London, UK.

Michael Ball brings 30+ years of experience in Information Systems - Architecture / Operations / Governance. The past 25 years Michael’s expertise has focused on IT Security, most of which has been in the Financial and Insurance Industry. He plays well in the sandbox with both Auditors and C-Level Execs. He tames Cloud Architecture and Internet-of-Things for fun and can be seen periodically blogging on ITWorld Canada.

Dr. Ann Cavoukian is recognized as one of the world’s leading privacy expert. She is presently the Executive Director of Ryerson University’s Privacy and Big Data Institute. Appointed as the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada in 1997, Dr. Cavoukian served an unprecedented three terms as Commissioner. Dr. Cavoukian’s expertise has been recognized in many ways. She was: ranked among the top 25 Women of Influence, named one of the top 100 City Innovators Worldwide by UBM Future Cities; chosen as one of the ‘Power 50’ by Canadian Business magazine; awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the Unviersity of Guelph; she was selected for Maclean’s Magazine’s ‘Power List’ of the top 50 Canadians, and most recently, picked as one of the top 10 women in data security, compliance, and privacy you should follow on Twitter. In her leadership of the Privacy and Big Data Institute at Ryerson University Dr. Cavoukian is dedicated to demonstrating that Privacy can and must be included, along with other considerations such as security and business interests.

Inspector Coxon has 20 years experience in policing. She is currently working in Strategy Management on the Transformational Task Force, which is working to modernize the Service. Prior to that, she was the second in charge of Intelligence Services, which includes both cyber and technological crime. She implemented the inaugural Computer Cyber Crime (C3) Section of the Toronto Police Service, which was one of many cyber-outcomes from her work as the Team Leader of Operation Reboot, a Service-wide initiative addressing social media, open source investigative techniques, training, technology procurement and cyber-related threats and opportunities. She has a BA with Honours in Psychology from York University, a MA in Criminology from the University of Toronto and her PhD in Criminal Law from Leicester University.

Dr. Sara Diamond is the President of OCAD University, Canada’s “university of the imagination”. She holds a PhD in Computing, Information Technology and Engineering, a Masters in Digital Media and Honours Bachelors of Arts in History and Communications. She is an appointee of the Order of Ontario and the Royal Canadian Society of Artists and a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for service to Canada. She is the winner of the 2013 GRAND NCE Digital Media Pioneer Award. For three decades Diamond has provided advice to Canada and beyond on design policy, digital media research, innovation and monetization, art and technology. In 2013 she completed Taking Ontario Mobile (with Vera Roberts), a study of the potential impacts of mobile technologies, networks and experiences for Ontario and Canada. http://www.takingontariomobile.ca/. Diamond served on the 2011-2012 Council of the Canadian Academies’ expert panel on the State of Science & Technology in Canada. Diamond is an internationally celebrated data visualization, wearable technology, mobile media researcher, media artist, designer and historian.

Jason Doel is cofounder and COO of Tracker Networks Inc. where he manages the company’s go-to-market strategy, sales and marketing, operations and solution delivery. Jason and his team work with dozens of leading organizations in Canada, the US and Europe, providing solutions, and advising business and technology executives on practical and sustainable ways to identify, track and reduce information risk.

 

Jason was previously the cofounder and VP Sales & Marketing of Assurent Secure Technologies, a global leader in application security and vulnerability research, prior to its successful sale to TELUS in 2006. While at Assurent, Jason cofounded the world’s leading provider of original security research. This specialized service continues to power over 50 of the world’s top security product vendors and provides vital intelligence to leading corporations and national intelligence organizations around the world.

Rob Douglas is the founder and CEO of BioConnect. Over the last fourteen years, he has been providing global market leadership in the biometric identity market. Prior to BioConnect Rob was instrumental in shaping high growth technology companies as a former leader at IBM, Oracle and Siebel Systems and a publicly traded biometrics company, BioScrypt. After leading the sale of Bioscrypt, Rob risked it all to start BioConnect and the “Quest for Rightful Identity” to fundamentally change identity verification and subsequently return trillions of dollars in fraud and the costs associated with operational friction to the world’s enterprises. He would also develop BioConnect to have an anti-hierarchical structure to bring about innovation, collaboration and ultimately unleash the true power and potential of its employees (aka BioConnectors).

Andrew Eppich leads a team of solution experts responsible for market and business development across Canada and the North Eastern United States. He helps Canadian Enterprises leverage the value of interconnecting with over 8000 customers and 1100 network carriers that reside in Equinix’s 146 data centers around the world. Before joining Equinix, Andrew was the Vice President of HP Canada, leading it’s Enterprise Partner and Channel Organization. Eppich holds an honors commerce degree from McMaster’s Michael DeGroote school of business.

Ero-Brown is responsible for leading the development and implementation of Ontario’s Data Directive as part the province’s Open Government Strategy. In this role she is working to provide access to high-value data and information that supports innovation and strengthens public policy – and testing new public engagement methods to involve Ontarians in decisions regarding the issues that impact their lives. Previously, as Corporate Performance Measurement Coordinator for Treasury Board Secretariat, Nosa was responsible for managing the ministry’s performance measurement program including the development of Key performance indicators.

Fox is the founding Director of the Centre for Social Services Engineering (csse.utoronto.ca) which applies engineering and computer science to the design and delivery of social services. He is also a member of the University of Toronto's Transportation Research Institute (uttri.utoronto.ca) where his research focuses on transportation information standards to support interoperability. Dr. Fox's current research is focused on Open City Data and the design of cities using constraints to explore the space of design alternatives. Dr. Fox is a founding member of the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University as well as the founding Director of the Intelligent Systems Laboratory within the Institute.

Poojan Kumar has led the Nutanix engineering and products team since September. Prior to joining Nutanix, Kumar was the CEO and co-founder of PernixData, and before that he led all data products at VMware. Prior to VMware, he co-founded Oracle Exadata and PixBlitz, a video server appliance company. Poojan received his Masters in CS from Stanford and a Bachelors in CS from IIT Bombay.

Ryan Lanyon has been working in urban transportation for 15 years, in the areas of policy development, demand management, and senior-level administration. He is the Chair of the AV Working Group for Transportation Services at the City of Toronto. He also serves as the Manager of the City's street furniture program, a public-private partnership with Astral Out-of-Home to install and maintain 25,000 transit shelters, litter bins, benches and other elements. Ryan has an interdisciplinary undergraduate degree focused on Urban Studies from Carleton University, a certificate in Marketing from Algonquin College, and a master's degree in Sustainable Business Leadership from Lund University in Sweden.

Jim Love is an IT leader, consultant, writer and Internet journalist with 35 years ‘experience across a variety of business and industry verticals. Jim has worked as an executive and a consultant for many large companies in Canada and internationally. Currently he is the CIO & Chief Content Officer at ITWC – Publisher of CanadianCIO, Computer Dealer News (CDN), Computing Canada, Direction Informatique (DI), ITWorldCanada.com and ITBusiness.ca - and the leading provider of IT related events in Canada.

Ted has been with the Tridel Group for over 20 years and has been recognized with several international and local awards for IT leadership, IT application development for the real estate industry, smart buildings, and innovation. He was recently named 2016 CanadianCIO of the Year (Private sector). Mauluuci has an undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration from the Schulich School of Business with a specialization in Real Property Development.

Duncan McGregor is responsible for overseeing Engineering and Operations with emphasis on strategy, design and delivery of network, data center, cloud, security and infrastructure services. With his team of IT professionals, he manages all of the company’s critical back office and business support systems. He has previously served as the CTO of Arcestra Inc., where he was essential to the leadership and development of the Company’s cloud technology platform for commercial real estate. Prior to that, he was the Senior Director of Global IT for OpenText Corporation, managing the IT, network, and security and cloud programs. McGregor holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo with a minor in Computer Science.

Rob Meikle is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the City of Toronto. In his role as CIO,Rob provides visionary leadership for the delivery of flexible and integrated information and communication technology solutions that enable and drive Service Excellence. Rob is a strategic business leader who is innovative and results driven with a proven track record of 20+ years’ experience planning, developing, and implementing award winning global business and technology solutions in the private, public and not for profit sector. Rob was twice named a global CIO 100 Honoree and Computerworld's 2013 Premier 100 IT Leader. Prior to the City of Toronto Rob was the Chief Information Officer at the City of Brampton and has held various leadership roles in the private sector including Global Operations, Customer Service, Marketing, eBusiness and Information Technology.

Alex Miller is president and founder of Esri Canada, which provides enterprise geographic information system (GIS) solutions to Canadian organizations in the public and private sectors. He founded Esri Canada in 1984 and has led the company through more than two decades of growth. He is responsible for the overall strategic direction of Esri Canada. An advocate for promoting Canada's advanced technology sector, he has delivered numerous keynote speeches and presentations at international and local GIS conferences, and provides board leadership to several professional and industry associations in Canada.

Lan Nguyen is the Deputy Chief Information Officer for the City of Toronto responsible for Enterprise Solutions Delivery, supporting public service delivery and operations to a diverse portfolio of 44 city business divisions. Her current mandates at the city also include creating business value through business transformation, citizen engagement and open government to enable city service delivery to be more accessible, flexible and responsive to customers and public needs. Prior to the working for the City of Toronto, Lan was the CIO/ Vice President of Innovations and Partnerships at Centennial College where she helped establish a new IT strategy and governance to direct IT investment priorities toward student services improvement and academic competitive advantage. She was instrumental in developing many of Centennial's successful strategic partnerships with the IT industry which opened opportunities to enhance the College’s learning and teaching environment. Lan has also held various IT leadership roles in the Ontario Government and private sectors. She has a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University, an Executive MBA from University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management and isa graduate of the Executive Public Administration program from Queen's University.

Rajani is the co-founder and Vice-President of Digital Experience at Jackman Reinvents. In the early 2000s, Zahra quickly migrated from global communications to digital channel strategy, working with Fortune 500 companies in their first attempts to navigate the new digital realm. As an executive thought- leader and customer experience Reinventionist, today Rajani leads business acceleration for cross-category retailers by connecting channels and re-creating brand relevance. She and her team curate right-sized CX initiatives designed to capitalize on content and commerce to produce measurable return.

Ryan has served as the Director, Service Development & Innovation at Toronto Public Library (TPL) since May 2016. Prior to TPL, she served in Director roles at Edmonton Public Library, most recently as Director, Collections and Technology, and as an academic librarian at the University of Alberta. She is a Sessional Instructor at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta, teaching Leadership and Management Principles for the Information Professions.

As the Chief Corporate Officer for the City of Toronto, Josie provides leadership and strategic vision to the City's Facilities Management, Real Estate Services, Fleet Services, 311 Toronto and Environment & Energy divisions. In this role, Josie seeks opportunities to use her skills and expertise to transform organizations and focus on customer service. Prior to joining the City, Josie was a senior executive at Toronto Community Housing and led the maintenance and construction service delivery portfolio. Josie graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Economics. She also has passion and commitment beyond the work environment that extends into the community.

Bobby Singh has 20 plus years’ experience in information security with extensive experience in risk management, business operations, compliance, consulting and auditing. As the Chief Information Security Officer executive at TMX, Singh’s role involves ensuring that security is built-in both at the business-level and within the Infrastructure. He provides leadership in the development and promotion of security standards and risk management practices. Singh has broad expertise in developing and implementing security programs for public and private sector organizations. Prior to joining TMX, Singh has held positions at TD Bank and Rogers Communications, where he focused on delivering security services to clients and developing their security practice.

Kristina Verner is the Director, Intelligent Communities for Waterfront Toronto, where she is responsible for a variety of strategic initiatives for one of the world's preeminent intelligent communities. She is active both nationally and internationally in the smart city movement and is the Board Chair for ICF Canada. She also serves on the global Board of Directors for the Intelligent Community Forum Foundation. In 2012, Verner was honoured to receive the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her leadership and commitment to the creation of intelligent communities and collaborative ecosystems that support the transparent, connected, vibrant communities and economies that will foster national prosperity.

Mike joined the City of Toronto in 2009. His main responsibilities include the implementation of the City’s Economic Development Strategy, Collaborating for Competitiveness, and its Culture Plan, Creative Capital Gains. He also sits on the boards of a number of local agencies connected to the City of Toronto, and in a volunteer capacity, the board of George Brown College. Mike has spent the majority of his career in general management, research, marketing and consulting, locally and internationally. Mike has an M.A. in Urban Geography and is a Certified Management Consultant (C.M.C.).

Bianca Wylie is head of the Open Data Institute Toronto and an Associate Expert for Open Cities at Open North. She has a professional background in both public consultation and the technology sector. Her technology experience includes work in operations, infrastructure, and product management, most recently at Thomson Reuters. She is a frequent organizer of community tech events and workshops, and is a co-founder of Civic Tech Toronto. Bianca is also a guest lecturer and writer on open government, civic technology, and civic engagement.