Speakers
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Homewise is a national Canadian mortgage technology company, focused on providing home buyers and owners with the easiest way to get their best mortgage. Clients apply online in minutes, then Homewise data intelligence technologies and tech-powered human Advisors do the work for clients to get the best, tailored mortgage from...show more
Speaking on: Intuit Prosperity Accelerator Showcase
Steven Abrams is Partner in BDC Capital’s IT Venture Fund, and Strategic Investments and Women in Technology Venture Fund. He joined BDC in 2001, after almost nine years in investment banking with Scotia McLeod and two years as CFO of an interactive advertising agency.
As Director of Corporate Finance at Scotia...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Growth Stage Investors: Yaletown Partners, BDC, Harbourvest Partners
Albinson is Co-Founder & Managing Director of BreakawayGrowth Fund. We look for founders with a capital-efficient mindset who will achieve more with less. This matters. Our focus is on early-stage companies in North America. We are happy to partner with founders early and be the first investor or invest as...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #3
John is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Relay Ventures, an early stage venture fund exclusively focused on mobile connectivity. During his tenure in the venture capital business, John has gained extensive experience assisting entrepreneurs shape their vision and capital plans...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Early Stage Investors: Relay Ventures, Whitecap Venture Partners, BDC
Maor is a Global Capital Markets professional. Over the last 20 years he has held roles with increasing responsibilities within the institutional sales department of two highly regarded investment banks. Throughout the years, Maor has advised some of the world’s largest institutional investors based in Europe, Canada and the US...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #4
The Honourable Navdeep Bains has been the Member of Parliament for Mississauga—Malton since 2015, and was previously the Member of Parliament for Mississauga—Brampton South from 2004 to 2011.
He has served as Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and was the Parliamentary Secretary to former Prime Minister Paul Martin. Previously,...show more
Speaking on: CIX 2020 Innovator of the Year Presentation and Keynote
Mr. Harjeet Bajaj, President & CEO: Harjeet has a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering & Management and a Master’s Degree in Engineering, both from McMaster University. Harjeet is recognized internationally as an AI expert, having won numerous awards for developing commercially viable solutions. Harjeet’s background includes developing Artificial Intelligence...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #2
Alexander is a Sr. Investment Manager with the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF), who's lead seed-stage investments in high-potential IT, health, and cleantech startups. He’s spent over a decade working with hardware & software across across sectors, from enterprise cloud development to healthcare hardware financing. A business strategist and corporate...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Early Stage Investors: DMZ Ventures, Fastbreak Ventures, MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, BDC
Hasan joined Information Venture Partners in 2020 and is focused on investments in FinTech and enterprise software.
Prior to joining Information Venture Partners, Hasan was an Operations Manager at Ritual where he led the City Operations team, responsible for managing user and partner experience across 40+ cities globally. He also served...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Early Stage Investors: BCF Ventures, Amplify Capital, Information Venture Partners
Melissa is a Senior Associate at Whitecap Venture Partners, where she works on sourcing, diligence, and portfolio management. Previously, she was a Business Operations and Strategy manager at Ritual, a mobile order ahead start-up based in Toronto. At Ritual, Melissa ran major strategic projects and experiments.
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Early Stage Investors: Relay Ventures, Whitecap Venture Partners, BDC
Liran Belenzon is the CEO of BenchSci, a biomedical artificial intelligence company he co-founded in 2016. BenchSci’s mission is to exponentially increase the speed and quality of life-saving research, by empowering scientists to design more successful experiments.
BenchSci has grown to an over 100-person strong organization that has raised more than...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #1
As a former CEO, seasoned entrepreneur, current board director and consultant Cathy's focus is growth. With over 30 years of business leadership, her own company Bennett Group of Companies grew from a small group of service businesses to operations in commercial and industrial construction, industrial manufacturing, human resource support, service,...show more
Speaking on: Atlantic Canada Tech Showcase
Founders have been working together as a duo on various projects since 2012. Olivier was the former
cofounder and CEO of iSentium and has deep expertise in financial markets (Fintech, GE Capital). Sophie is a former luxury brand executive (Cartier) with deep expertise in art and economics.
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #1
I'm a Thiel Fellow, Y Combinator Alumni, AVP at Pioneer Fund and co-founder and CEO of HelpWear. I've developed Magnet, a holistic machine learning based Linkedin partner API application out of the Massachusettes Institute of Technology's MIT Launch program. My research in using daphnia as a form of biological assessment...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #3
For professionals who need to understand, forecast and model corporate finances, Dryrun software is highly visual and cloud-based, providing real time, dynamic and robust displays of a company's present and future cash flows. Dryrun is simple to use, handles incredibly complex cash flow scenarios for businesses dealing with up to...show more
Speaking on: Intuit Prosperity Accelerator Showcase
Saroop Bharwani is a serial tech entrepreneur and CEO of Senso, a Fintech AI company which helps lenders optimize their revenue operations by proactively generating offers and preapprovals for their clients to enhance retention and profitability. Prior to Senso, Saroop spent over a decade building product and growth teams across...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #3
Nina Bilimoria Angelo is Vice President of Product Marketing at Top Hat. In this role, she leads messaging, positioning, product launches and customer advocacy efforts for the company.
With over ten years of senior leadership experience in education technology, Nina joined Top Hat from Pearson, where she led teams focused on...show more
Speaking on: The Future of Higher Education
Mark Bishop is Co-CEO and Partner at marblemedia. An accomplished entrepreneur, brand-builder and trusted media industry advocate, Mark, alongside co-founder Matt Hornburg, has grown marblemedia into one of Canada’s leading independent production, distribution and digital media companies.
In addition to serving as executive producer across marblemedia’s successful portfolio of television and...show more
Speaking on: The Media Business Pitch: When, How, and Who to Pitch
Mark Blackwell is an Investing Partner and lead of the Canadian Office at Builders. Previously, Mark was a Product Manager at SolarWinds, which develops IT monitoring and network management tools. Mark joined SolarWinds when it acquired GNS3 Technologies ($30MM), an enterprise networking startup where Mark was the Chief Operating Officer....show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Early Stage Investors: Builders VC, BDC Capital
Peter has more than 25 years of experience in leading companies at the intersection of healthcare and technology. He has a proven track record of navigating through times of rapid growth and change, forging strategic partnerships and alliances to enter new markets, boosting both revenues and profitability, and securing funding.
He is...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #2
David is the Founder and CEO of LevelJump, the world’s first Outcome-Based Enablement platform.
Prior to LevelJump, Dave built and sold a corporate learning business and successfully held senior sales and marketing roles at Fortune 500 companies like Pfizer, GSK, and Salesforce.
In addition to leading go to market teams, David is...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #4
Jonathan Borduas is a pioneer of the 3D manufacturing revolution. He founded his first company straight out of engineering school, commercializing the world’s first 3D-printed knee brace. He subsequently founded Shapeshift 3D in 2019, and now leads a dedicated team of engineers & specialists that strive to achieve Shapeshift 3D's...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #1
Anne-Marie Bourgeois is a Partner with BDC Capital’s Intellectual Property-Backed Financing. She brings more than 20 years of operating and investing experience working with knowledge-based companies across Canada. Most recently, she was Vice President, Investments at EnerTech Capital. Prior to that she worked at Sustainable Development Technology Canada, with an...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Early & Growth Stage Investors: Framework Venture Partners, AngelList, BDC Capital
Visionary leader, founder, entrepreneur and champion of female creators. Julie’s new venture, The Content Catalyst Fund, leverages her unique set of business and strategic skills and her strong international network to get great content made. In 2013, Bristow launched Bristow Global Media Inc, where she created, packaged and produced content...show more
Speaking on: Case Study: supporting women-led stories with the Content Catalyst Fund
Kathryn is passionate about engaging people in cybersecurity. As the second full-time employee with Beauceron, she's worked hand-in-hand with clients to develop their cybersecurity culture posture by focusing, as she always has, on the people. As Chief Operating Officer, Kathryn is helping fuel Beauceron's growth with the Sales, Marketing, Customer...show more
Speaking on: Atlantic Canada Tech Showcase
Noah is an investor with First Ascent Ventures (FAV), a Canadian based enterprise software VC fund. Noah has previous experience in finance and technology both in Canada and abroad. He has worked at UBS in their Canadian Investment Banking practice and at Deloitte in Innovation Consulting. He graduated from Ivey...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Early Stage Investors: First Ascent Ventures, 500 Startups, BDC Capital
Daneal Charney is a Top 25 Human Resource Award Winner | Growth Coach for Startup Executives | Speaker | Believer in Fierce Conversations. Currently Daneal is an Executive in Residence for MaRS Momentum companies. Momentum is a multi-sector, exclusive program designed to support the executives of high-growth companies on their...show more
Speaking on: CIX Networking Roundtables: MaRS, Sampler, CAIL, Plaza Ventures, Tehama, Goodmans LLP
Nayla is an investment director for Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ)’s venture capital fund. CDPQ is a long-term institutional investor that manages funds primarily for public and parapublic pension and insurance plans. As at June 30th, 2020, it held CA$333 billion in net assets. CDPQ’s venture capital...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Growth Stage Investors: Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Espresso Capital, CITIC Capital
Christopher Chen
Head of Investment Promotion, Invest Hong Kong (Canada)
Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office Toronto Attn: InvestHK
Christopher is the Head of the InvestHK presence for Canada, operating from the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office in Toronto. As Hong Kong's trade consul and commercial representative for Canada, he is responsible for all activities driving new business development and direct foreign investment. He comes from a digital...show more
Speaking on: Expansion and Funding Opportunities in Asia; Private Meeting; Private 20-minute Meetings to discuss Your Company’s Strategy for Expansion into Asia
Marie Chevrier, is the Founder and CEO of Sampler, the leading platform helping brands like L'Oréal and Nestlé deliver samples online and gather the insight they need to build one-to-one relationships with their customers.
Sampler has reached over 50 million consumers globally in 24 different countries and its most notable clients...show more
Speaking on: CIX Networking Roundtables: MaRS, Sampler, CAIL, Plaza Ventures, Tehama, Goodmans LLP
Kathryn is a strategic talent leader with a passion for driving excellence through engaging and maximizing the organization’s greatest asset: their people. I put this passion into practice as the Head of People at Georgian, a fintech company focused on investing in high growth technology companies that harness the power...show more
Andrea Clements, Director of High Intensity Services, Trade Commissioner Services, Global Affairs Canada.
Mrs. Clements has been with the Trade Commissioners for over 19 years. With one tour in Korea and two in Japan, her leadership and insight to trade in Asia for the CTA invaluable. As Director of the newly...show more
Speaking on: Canadian Technology Accelerator in Asia: Successes through Virtual Programming
Bruce Croxon made his mark as a digital pioneer by co-founding Lavalife and revolutionizing how people connect. Under his direction, he grew this early tech start-up into the marquee brand in online dating with over two million users. Partner, chairman and CEO, Croxon helped lead the company’s growth from four...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #2
Tom Cumming, Deputy Director of High Intensity Services at the Toronto Regional Office, Trade Commissioner Services, Global Affairs Canada
A holder of an MBA from University of Navarra (Barcelona) and degrees in commerce and law, Tom worked at Citizenship and Immigration Canada, managed the operations of a Canadian software company in...show more
Speaking on: Canadian Technology Accelerator in Asia: Successes through Virtual Programming
Catherine Dahl is the CEO and co-founder of Beanworks, an innovative accounts payable automation platform that connects organizations from purchase order to payment. Catherine is passionate about business process improvement. She leads with a vision of making accounting easier, more efficient, cost-effective, and enjoyable. As a CPA and CMA professional,...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #4
Marcus is CEO and Founding Partner of Highline BETA, a venture capital and a startup co-creation company. He leads visionary execution, strategic deals, accelerator platform growth, and new venture funding. He has 20+ years as a serial tech entrepreneur and was previously the Co-Founder and CEO of HIGHLINE.vc and Managing...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Early Stage Investors: Highline Beta, Jaguar Land Rover, Real Ventures
Life insurance by chat. Emma offers a personalized, simplified and entirely online approach so that customers can feel comfortable, less stressed and in control of their decisions. The team is made up of certified advisers who have distinguished themselves in their respective fields of expertise. Emma is able to underwrite...show more
Speaking on: Intuit Prosperity Accelerator Showcase
Paul Desmarais III is the Chairman and CEO of Sagard Holdings, the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Portag3 Ventures, and the Chairman and co-founder of Diagram. Within the investment portfolios of Portag3 Ventures and Sagard Holdings, he is the Chairman of Wealthsimple, Dialogue, and Peak Achievement Athletics and a director...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #2
Daniel Dubois CO-FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
After creating, building and selling his last two venture-backed companies (guiides.com and ShareShed), Daniel joined Airbnb full-time, where he led and managed growth in their top tier markets
Daniel’s entrepreneurial talents have been recognized with the Top 30 Under 30 Award, Canada’s Top Student Entrepreneur...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #2
Sergio Escobar is the CEO & Partner at BCF Ventures, a Canadian Corporate Venture Capital Fund investing across the United States and Canada in B2B Cloud & SaaS Enterprise startups leveraging Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Business Intelligence, Business Analytics and Security. Sergio has +15 years of experience as a multiple...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Early Stage Investors: BCF Ventures, Amplify Capital, Information Venture Partners; CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #3
Perry Everett is the co-founder of Arylla, where he is responsible for growing the company's network of partners and brand clients. Along with his two co-founders, Perry studied nanotechnology at the University of Waterloo before launching Arylla.
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #1
Ken Faier is El Presidente and CEO of Epic Story Media and its subsidiary Epic Story Interactive. The mission for both companies is to put creators at the center of compelling and engaging franchises for kids. Who doesn't remember that feeling we all had as a child when we fell...show more
Speaking on: The Media Business Pitch: When, How, and Who to Pitch
Eli Fathi is CEO at MindBridge, developer of the world’s first auditing tool based upon AI and machine learning technologies and selected as a 2020 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. Eli has been a technology entrepreneur for over 30 years, having founded or co-founded many successful technology companies. Eli was...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #1
Matt is an Outreach Officer at Innovative Solutions Canada, a Government of Canada program dedicated to helping Canadian innovators who want to start, grow and get to market. Matt has worked as a digital specialist in the federal government for over 5 years with the ATSSC, PSPC and ISED.
Speaking on: Accelerate your journey to market
Jordan French is the Founder and Executive Editor of Grit Daily. The champion of live journalism, Grit Daily’s team hails from ABC, CBS, CNN, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Forbes, Fox, PopSugar, SF Chronicle, VentureBeat, Verge, Vice, and Vox. An award-winning journalist, he is on the editorial staff at TheStreet.com and a...show more
Speaking on: The Current M & A Landscape
Stephen has 20 years of start-up entrepreneurial experience together with management consulting and corporate finance advisory experience. A former risk manager with RBC Japan and investment banker with Barclays Capital NYC office, Stephen brings international business development and trade expertise, together with extensive corporate finance experience to TrojAI. In 2007,...show more
Speaking on: Atlantic Canada Tech Showcase
Balaji Gopalan leads business development and strategy as the Co-Founder and CEO at MedStack. Prior to MedStack, he launched BlackBerry’s iconic BBM service globally and led platform strategy at D2L, Nymi and EventMobi. As an expert in product management and software platform ecosystem design, Balaji is also a well-respected startup...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #3
Karl Greenlaw is the founder and CEO of Brunvalley. Karl previously founded Brovada Technologies the dominant provider of broker to insurer connectivity in Canada. Brovada was acquired by Willis Towers Watson (WTW) a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company. At WTW, Karl assumed the role of Global Head of...show more
Speaking on: Atlantic Canada Tech Showcase
Jean-Nicolas started his career in Management consulting and then completed his MBA at INSEAD. In 2010, he co-founded, TransacXion, a fintech company based in the US. In 2013, JN joined Uber as one of the first 300 employees and launched the Montreal market as General Manager for Eastern Canada. He...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #2
After nearly a decade in Silicon Valley, Sam joined the Real Ventures team with a great breadth of experience as a founder, strategizer and marketer. Having leaped into the startup world barely before he graduated from university, he joined the founding team at Chegg, a leading education technology company that...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #1
Amoye is an entrepreneur and small business consultant working in the investment space. She is on a mission to help scale growth-based businesses led by unique founders.
In 2018, she was named one of Canada's top 100 Accomplished Black Women. Through enticing pitches and building strong brand partnerships, she has helped...show more
Speaking on: Inclusive Investing
Darryl has been active as a successful serial entrepreneur and technology expert for more than 20 years. A pioneer in Card Not Present sales, Darryl has extensive experience building and managing technologically complex online and offline Direct Marketing businesses. Darryl is the CEO, and Founder of FlexPay, a transaction processing...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #4
Sean Hinton is the Founder & CEO of SkyHive, as well as the Co-Chair of the Entrepreneurs Circle of the Canadian American Business Council (CABC). With a career spanning two decades, Sean is an experienced corporate CEO and an expert in labour economics and global business.
Today, Sean is...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #4
Brenda has over 15 years’ experience in venture capital at the co-investment, fund of funds, and fund level investing. She has represented OCGC’s interests in over 25 venture capital investments.
Brenda has held senior roles in corporate development, finance, and strategic...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Growth Stage Investors: Ontario Capital Growth Corporation, Georgian, TIMIA Capital
Krista is the Founding Executive, Momentum and a Vice President of Ventures Services at MaRS Discovery District. She has been the driving force behind the creation of Momentum, a MaRS program supporting the executives of high-growth companies on their way to reaching $100 million in revenue in the next five...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #1
A visionary thinker, Evan has a proven track record of seeking out and leading step change innovations over a career spanning 20 years in forest products, industrial manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors. Evan has served as Chief Executive Officer of SMARTSKIN since 2016 and has since led the company on a...show more
Speaking on: Atlantic Canada Tech Showcase
Dr. Karim S Karim (PhD, PEng, MBA) has developed novel X-ray imaging devices and systems since 1998. He has both supported and founded multiple startups in the past two decades. He has raised more than $15M in research grant funding, trained over 40 PhD and MASc students, has co-authored 250+...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #2
Deepak Kaura, MD, FRCPC, MBA – Deepak is 1QBit’s Chief Medical Officer and the Chair of the Board of Joule, a Canadian Medical Association subsidiary. Prior to these appointments, Deepak spent 5 years in Qatar with the Sidra Medical and Research Center, most recently as the Executive Chairman of the...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #3
Dennis Kavelman joined Inovia Capital in 2018 to launch the Growth Fund I, with Chris Arsenault and
Patrick Pichette, and leads the Firm’s value creation strategy. Leveraging both the venture team’s
insights and the growth team’s know-how, Dennis has been invaluable in overseeing dealflow
management and crystalizing the investment team’s processes with the...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #2
Neha Khera is a Partner with 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that is one of the most active in the world. Based in Toronto, Neha leads the firm’s investments in early-stage startups across Canada. She has been immersed in the technology industry throughout her career, starting off...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #1; Meeting Exchanges Early Stage Investors: First Ascent Ventures, 500 Startups, BDC Capital
Jodi Kovitz is the founder & CEO of #movethedial, a global movement and organization to advance the participation and leadership of all women in tech. Jodi has been featured in Forbes Women, the Globe and Mail, Report on Business, on Business News Network multiple times and in the Huffington Post....show more
Speaking on: Inclusive Investing
Steven is a technology entrepreneur with over 20 years of executive leadership experience in founding and scaling companies developing disruptive, enterprise-class technologies. In 1999, Steven co-founded iCongo, a leading global software provider for omni-channel retail and B2B commerce solutions, which merged with hybris Software in 2011 and became the largest...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #2
Anthony Lacavera founded Globalive in 1998 and serves as Chairman. Anthony also founded and was CEO of WIND Mobile, which he sold for USD$1.3 billion after it grew to become Canada’s fourth largest wireless carrier. A serial entrepreneur, he started his first business out of university with a small business...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #1
Justin is a Managing Partner at Georgian Partners, which he co-founded in 2008. He was also a co-founder of DWL, and under his leadership, DWL developed its Customer Data Integration (CDI) software, now called IBM Infosphere MDM Server, helping pioneer...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #2
Eva is a well-respected entrepreneur-turned-investor and one of the few women leading a venture fund in Canada. She is the Founding Partner of Two Small Fish Ventures, a venture fund that invests globally in early-stage, transformative tech companies with strong network effects.
Before starting Two Small Fish Ventures, she was Wattpad’s...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #1
Jean is the Founder and CEO of Qohash, a company revolutionizing enterprise data risk management by delivering a single platform to monitor and protect sensitive data. Qohash’s core mission is to protect your most precious assets: your data assets. Jean has more than 15 years of experience in the Defence...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #3
Daniel leads the technology practice within mid-market investment banking and has over 12 years of experience advising technology companies on M&A and capital raise transactions. Over his career, Daniel has successfully closed numerous transactions across a variety of sub-sectors including Enterprise Software, SMB SaaS, FinTech, Healthcare IT, Digital Media, and...show more
Speaking on: The Current M & A Landscape
Matthew is the Co-Founder of Plaza Ventures, a national venture capital firm, spending 7+ years focused on deal flow, board management, ecosystem development, corporate partnerships and investor relations. Matthew is a career VC, having overseen dozens of growth-tech finance investments...show more
Speaking on: CIX Networking Roundtables: MaRS, Sampler, CAIL, Plaza Ventures, Tehama, Goodmans LLP; Meeting Exchanges Growth Stage Investors: Revolution Growth, Plaza Ventures, Flow Capital Corp.
Noah Leshan
Investor at Pegasus Tech Ventures and Manager of Startup World Cup
Pegasus Tech Ventures
Noah Leshan serves as an Investor at Pegasus Tech Ventures, providing in-depth financial and qualitative investment analysis of startups around the world.
Noah is also the Partnerships Manager for Startup World Cup and leads the Startup World Cup Advisory Committee. Noah's experience spans Europe and South America, as well as the...show more
Speaking on: Special Announcement: Winner of Canadian Regional for Startup World Cup
Nathalie Lethbridge is the Founder and Managing Director of Atonik Digital, an international streamed entertainment and content strategy consultancy based in London. An expert in Pay TV, streamed entertainment services, content, mobile and converged digital media, Nathalie has extensive experience in business and content strategy, as well commercial negotiations across...show more
Speaking on: The View From Here: navigating the media landscape post-2020
Jon Lipinski is Co-Founder and President of Ecopia, an international supplier of high definition mapping products. Ecopia leverages AI to convert high-resolution images of our earth into high-definition (HD) Vector Maps. These maps form a digital representation of reality and are embedded into critical decision-making applications, offering unique insight at...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #1
Dani Lipkin carries the role of Innovation Sector Head for Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV). In this capacity, he is responsible for working with private companies and their shareholders as they explore and consider the option of raising equity capital in Canada.
Prior to this role, Dani...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Growth Stage Investors: TSX Inc., VERTU Capital, Telus Ventures
Howard serves as Executive Chairman of CommerceBear Inc., working closely with the leadership team on strategy, operations, and finance. A results-oriented entrepreneurial leader, he has extensive experience in the technology, renewable energy, financial services, and management consulting industries. As a founder, he has had two successful exits.
Howard was COO/CFO and...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #2
Mark is Co-Chair of Osler’s Emerging and High Growth Companies Group and Managing Partner of Osler’s Vancouver office. Mark has over 20 years of experience in corporate finance, M&A and technology law, and has held general counsel, corporate secretary and senior executive positions for a number of private and publicly...show more
Speaking on: The Current M & A Landscape
Throughout my 20 year career, I’ve successfully built a $1B business segment for a large public company, guided the turnaround of a distressed $100M+ revenue business, launched and sold a venture-backed startup, and led the rise of one of the world’s fastest growing B2B SaaS businesses.
My first career was in...show more
Speaking on: Raising capital takes a lot more than a pitch deck
Brandon Luft is the co-founder and CEO of Shipfusion, a technology company that specializes in e-commerce shipping and fulfillment. Powered by its own custom-built technology platform, Shipfusion has grown to become an e-commerce market leader with warehouses in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Toronto. Prior to Shipfusion, Luft served as CEO...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #2
With more than 20 years of experience driving transformational growth for companies in North America, David is an accomplished technology leader.
Today, he’s at the helm of Intuit Canada. As Country Manager, he leads a team that’s passionate about powering prosperity for Canadians – and in turn, the country’s economy. David...show more
Speaking on: Intuit Prosperity Accelerator Showcase
Prashant Matta is a Partner at Panache Ventures, one of the most active seed stage venture funds in Canada. He is passionate about helping entrepreneurs build venture scale businesses and collaborating with the tech community in advancing the Canadian startup ecosystem. Prashant was previously at OMERS Ventures and Samsung.
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #3
Laurie Mayhas been in the film business for over twenty years. She is currently Co-Founder and Co-President of Elevation Pictures, a Canadian distribution company launched at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. Elevation has become one of the largest independent distribution companies in Canada, with titles such as The Imitation...show more
Speaking on: The Media Business Pitch: When, How, and Who to Pitch
Understanding traffic is fundamental to managing the evolution of our cities. But, when Kurtis McBride looked at how cities were measuring traffic, he saw methods that hadn’t changed in decades – people with clipboards counting cars. He co-founded Miovision in 2005, a fast-growing Kitchener-based company using computer vision, artificial intelligence...show more
Speaking on: CIX 2020 Innovator of the Year Presentation and Keynote
Lauren McCullagh, Trade Commissioner- Asia Canadian Technology Accelerator, Trade Commissioner Services, Global Affairs Canada, lauren.mccullagh@international.gca.
Before joining the Trade Commissioners Service in Ottawa, Lauren was a mentor for the digital health CTA program in NYC and facilitated the launch of the NYC-SPORE fintech program. She have over 10 years working in...show more
Speaking on: Canadian Technology Accelerator in Asia: Successes through Virtual Programming
Alexander has taught all humanities, coached, and dorm-parented for nearly 20 years at Dartmouth College, The King School, Kingswood-Oxford, Philips Andover and The Taft School. He is an expert at the college application process, including college essay writing and standardized test preparation. He has tutored hundreds of adolescent teens and...show more
Speaking on: The Future of Higher Education
Craig is the CEO of Copperstone Technologies, a company bridging robotics, artificial intelligence and the mining industry. He is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in technology-enabled companies, strategy, finance, and business development. Craig was co-Founder and President of Stream Technologies Inc. and developed a product for agricultural imaging prior...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #1
Asif is an Investor at Gradient Ventures. Prior to Gradient, Asif worked in Technology Mergers & Acquisitions at Lazard Frères & Co. He advised leading technology majors including Google and IBM on strategic assessments and acquisitions, as well as earlier stage companies such as Episerver on strategic alternatives, financings and...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #1; CIX Networking Roundtables: Reformulary Group, Dark Slope, Gradient Ventures, LowestRates.ca
Wil is responsible for scouting startups for Jaguar Land Rover and InMotion Ventures (corporate venture arm) across the ACES (automated, connected, electrification, shared mobility), sustainability, smart cities, ai/ml. Wil engages with superb operators developing solutions to huge, unsolved problems related to mobility and automotive.
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Early Stage Investors: Highline Beta, Jaguar Land Rover, Real Ventures
Mike Murchison, one of Forbes’ Top 30 under 30, is the CEO and Co-founder of Ada, a venture-back AI-powered platform that is transforming how businesses around the world, including TELUS, Medium and AirAsia, provide customer service. Before Ada, Mike answered tens of thousands of customer service inquiries manually firsthand. Using...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #1
Alison Nankivell currently serves as Vice President, Fund Investments and Global Scaling for BDC Capital, the risk capital subsidiary of the BDC. Based in Toronto, she leads BDC Capital’s fund investments activity which constitutes over 60 GP relationships...show more
Speaking on: 30 Minutes with BDC Capital
Hamzah is a Partner at Real Ventures based in the Toronto office. Having lived and worked in both developed and emerging markets over the last 20 years, he has accumulated a diverse background and a wealth of experience in technology development and startup investing. He started his career developing the...show more
Speaking on: Inclusive Investing; Meeting Exchanges Early Stage Investors: Highline Beta, Jaguar Land Rover, Real Ventures
Lisa Olfman is the CEO and Co-Founder of Portfolio Entertainment.
PORTFOLIO ENTERTAINMENT is a creative-driven, fast-paced media & global distribution company committed to embracing change and finding new approaches to storytelling.
Lisa is at the helm of the company’s production arm, recognized for creative excellence and collaborative joint ventures. Her creative business insight...show more
Speaking on: Growing Your Media Company: When to Hire, When to Fire
Frederic is the Senior Outreach Officer at Innovation Canada promoting ExploreIP, Canada’s IP Marketplace, the online tool connecting businesses with Canadian public sector Intellectual property. He has worked for the federal government for over 11 years on the files of Innovation and Intellectual Property at GAC, CIPO and the CSA.
Speaking on: Accelerate your journey to market
Sid Paquette is the Head, Technology & Innovation Banking at RBC. In this role, Sid is responsible for leading a highly specialized national team to deliver industry-tailored capital financing, business advice and solutions that go beyond traditional banking to support the growth of technology and innovation companies in this rapidly...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #1
Michael Pasket, Director of Sales, MappedIn
Michael is the Director of Sales at MappedIn. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he completed a business degree at Sonoma State University. Michael worked for Google Maps, where he led the international indoor mapping sales team before joining MappedIn as an Account Executive for...show more
Speaking on: Canadian Technology Accelerator in Asia: Successes through Virtual Programming
Devashish Paul founded BluWave-ai after an extensive career in the semiconductor industry focused on supercomputing, artificial intelligence, and networking. He is a life-long cyclist and nature enthusiast using human powered energy for personal transportation to explore the world. Devashish founded the company combining his interest in clean energy technologies with...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #4
Founders have been working together as a duo on various projects since 2012. Olivier was the former
cofounder and CEO of iSentium and has deep expertise in financial markets (Fintech, GE Capital). Sophie is a former luxury brand executive (Cartier) with deep expertise in art and economics.
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #1
Christina Perdikoulias joined DigitalEd in July 2018 as Chief Operating Officer and was appointed President in May 2019. She is responsible for the strategic direction and product vision, executive leadership, and daily operations of the company.
From her previous executive roles in the technology sector, Christina brings a wealth of knowledge...show more
Speaking on: The Future of Higher Education
Carlo Perez is an engineer and entrepreneur, passionate about delivering designs and transformative technologies that put empathy into action. Raised by a father who was a trained engineer and a mother who worked as a nurse, Carlo spent seven years in R&D at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc., where his...show more
Speaking on: Innovators Tackling the COVID-19 Crisis
Dan has over 10 years of advisory and investing experience focused on companies with disruptive technologies and business models.
He spent the first five years of his career working as a Management Consultant for A.T. Kearney and Navigant, where he focused mainly on the cleantech sector. He then spent several years...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #4
Mahima is Senior Vice- President of Digital Banking and Strategy at Equitable Bank. Mahima leads EQ Bank, Equitable’s digital banking arm, and is also responsible for the Strategy, Corporate Development, and Marketing activities at Equitable Bank.
Mahima joined Equitable in 2016 to lead the Corporate Development team and grew her mandate...show more
Speaking on: Customers at the core: How tech partnerships are changing the way Canadians bank
While I’ve been involved with startups ever since founding my own software company in the mid 1990s, the bulk of my career has been defined by venture capital. In the early 2000s, I co-founded Pittsburgh-based VC firm, Birchmere Ventures.
Over the following 20+ years at Birchmere, we raised and invested six...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #1
In 2016 Tim Rice took a gamble and left a senior role with a multinational pharmaceutical giant to take the helm of a scrappy start-up that has, under his leadership, grown into the leading digital solutions provider for Canadian doctors. The Rounds has created a collaborative professional network for physicians...show more
Speaking on: Atlantic Canada Tech Showcase
Rob Richards CO-FOUNDER & CEO
As COO, Rob led e-Cruiter.com (one of the first SaaS companies) through hands-on reference customer wins, a Nasdaq IPO and a roll up.
Since then, he has advised multiple start-ups and co-founded and built Plaza Ventures into a Top 5 Private VC in Canada (as...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #2
Whitney Rockley is the Managing Partner of McRock Capital, a venture capital fund focused exclusively on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Whitney co-founded McRock Capital after investing in high growth tech companies targeting industrial markets for the past 20 years. She currently serves on the boards of Praemo(Chair),
Speaking on: CIX 2020 Innovator of the Year Presentation and Keynote
James Rockwood is the founder of CapIntel Inc, a fintech company building a digital sales channel connecting asset managers and financial advisors. CapIntel’s products reduce asset manager distribution costs by 15+ basis points while saving advisors valuable time and helping them sell more.
CapIntel’s clients include tier 1 banks, top 10...show more
Speaking on: Atlantic Canada Tech Showcase
Claudio Rojas is Chief Executive Officer of the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO).Claudio has held the roles of managing director, board member, advisor, and founder of several prominent organizations contributing to Canada’s transformation into the world’s leading innovation economy. He brings an exceptionally long-term entrepreneurial mindset to investments and is...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #1; CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #2; CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #3; CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #4
Deborah Rojas, Trade Commissioner for the CTA Program at the Toronto Regional Office, Trade Commissioner Services, Global Affairs Canada
Deborah Rojas is the Fintech and CTA Trade Commissioner at the Ontario Regional Office of Global Affairs Canada in Toronto, where she supports Canadian companies achieve their international business expansion objectives. She...show more
Speaking on: Canadian Technology Accelerator in Asia: Successes through Virtual Programming
Sen Sachi is the Director, Global Startup Pipeline & Community Relations at the DMZ. He joined the DMZ team in 2017.
Sen brings with him years of experience and knowledge honed while working with early to mid-stage tech companies at Communitech as Program Manager. During his time with the Kitchener-based tech...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Early Stage Investors: DMZ Ventures, Fastbreak Ventures, MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, BDC; CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #4
Dr. Maryam Sadeghi completed her PhD in Computing Science at Simon Fraser University in the Medical Image Analysis lab working closely with BC Cancer Agency and Vancouver Skin CareCenter. As a Skin Research Training Center CIHR Scholar for two years, she worked on the visualization and analysis of malignant features...show more
Speaking on: Innovators Tackling the COVID-19 Crisis
Sanjiv has 20+ years of experience in the technology, media & telecom sectors, and is one of Canada's most experienced and widely respected growth company advisors and financiers.
Prior to establishing the Round13 Growth Fund, Sanjiv headed the Technology, Media, Telecommunication (“TMT”), Sustainability and Healthcare investment banking group at a Canadian...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #2
Michelle Scarborough
Managing Partner, Thrive Venture Fund and Women in Technology Venture Fund
BDC Capital
Michelle Scarborough is Managing Director, Strategic Investments and Women in Tech. In this position, she leads the origination and execution of strategic initiatives to fill current and future financing gaps in the Canadian ecosystem. She is also responsible for BDC’s...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #4; 30 Minutes with BDC Capital
As CEO, Mark’s responsibilities include strategy, supporting sales, marketing, and our technology roadmap, along with M&A and corporate finance. Over the past eighteen years he has launched three companies focused on business-to-business services, including two firms in the managed IT services industry. Fully Managed, a national managed services provider, annually...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #2
For over 10 years, Mike has worked at the intersection of the technology and finance industry in a multitude of capacities, including co-founder, investor and consultant. Mike is passionate about helping Canada's technology industry thrive and is always willing to help technology companies; whether it be introducing them to a...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Growth Stage Investors: Yaletown Partners, BDC, Harbourvest Partners
Mike Silagadze is the CEO and co-founder of Top Hat. Under Mike's leadership and vision, Top Hat has become the market leader in student engagement software, and is used by millions of students at three-quarters of the top 1,000 colleges and universities in North America.
Mike is an active speaker...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #2
Devon Smiley is a Negotiation & Commercial Consultant for startup founders who are sick of settling, and ready to go after what they want, need and deserve.
She’s distilled over 15 years and $5 billion of negotiation experience into accessible and actionable guidance that helps build the skills needed to negotiate...show more
Speaking on: Negotiating for Women Entrepreneurs Masterclass
Abdullah Snobar is the Executive Director of the DMZ and the Chief Executive Officer of DMZ Ventures. He is responsible for the strategic direction and continued growth of both organizations.
Under his leadership, the DMZ built a presence for Canadian startups to grow in NYC and was ranked as the number...show more
Speaking on: Showcase - DMZ Black Innovation Fellowship
Helen Stevenson is Founder and CEO of Reformulary Group Inc., a healthcare company that built a proprietary evidence-based drug list, the Reformulary®, and award-winning DrugFinder™ tool that provides Canadians with valuable, comparative drug information and saves money for company health benefit plans. The company recently launched Cannabis Standard™, a platform...show more
Speaking on: CIX Networking Roundtables: Reformulary Group, Dark Slope, Gradient Ventures, LowestRates.ca
Craig is a partner at Round13 Capital, a growth-stage venture capital firm based in Toronto. Craig works “hands-on” with R13’s portfolio companies to help them scale. He is a currently a director on the boards of Affinio, Kooltra, Limelight and Statflo.
Prior to joining Round13, Craig...show more
Speaking on: Meeting Exchanges Growth Stage Investors: Telus Ventures, Summit Partners, Round13 Capital
Bill is the co-founder of the Digital Technology Supercluster. Past President and CEO of BC Tech, Bill Tam has been actively involved in guiding the success of entrepreneurial companies as a founder, executive, investor, advisor, and board member for the past 20 years. He first joined BC Tech as a...show more
Speaking on: Innovators Tackling the COVID-19 Crisis
Drew is Co-Founder and CEO at Acorn Biolabs. He has a diverse background including biomedical engineering and molecular biology, healthcare venture investing, and professional athletics. He completed his undergrad in Biology at the University of Michigan and a Masters from the same school in Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology. He...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #1
Justin Thouin is the Co-Founder and CEO of LowestRates.ca. Justin started the company in 2012 following a successful career as a Senior Executive with two prominent entertainment and technology organizations. He also created a thriving Executive Consulting practice prior to founding the company. Justin holds an Honours Degree in...show more
Speaking on: CIX Networking Roundtables: Reformulary Group, Dark Slope, Gradient Ventures, LowestRates.ca
An Investment Manager with Yaletown Partners and based in Edmonton, Arden provides startup capital to Alberta-based companies through Accelerate Funds II and III, which Yaletown manages in partnership with local tech industry association, the A100. An accomplished investment professional with more than 15 years of private and public sector experience,...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #1
Paul Vallée is the founder and CEO of Tehama and a serial entrepreneur who has spent his career at the forefront of cutting-edge technologies that enable the exchange of work over the internet.
Paul was a pioneer in remote connectivity and lays claim to the first application of IPSEC VPN...show more
Speaking on: CIX Networking Roundtables: MaRS, Sampler, CAIL, Plaza Ventures, Tehama, Goodmans LLP
Ilaria is a business expert with over 20 years in executive roles. In her past roles with vertically integrated retailers, wholesalers, and clothing manufacturers, Ilaria has led teams in retail, real estate, marketing and management. As Executive Vice President of Myant, she currently leads operations and is heavily involved in...show more
Speaking on: Innovators Tackling the COVID-19 Crisis
Sam Vlessing isn’t your average tech founder—he's the fourth generation in the furniture industry, with a family who have clocked more than 80 years in the business as prominent producers of furniture. Growing up around his father's furniture plant he was able to gain a deep appreciation of what it's...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #2
Sparcblock helps businesses reach their performance objectives by streamlining B2B transactions. Leveraging leading edge technology and deep industry experience. Sparcblock delivers practical solutions that reduce costs and accelerate the speed of transactions while maintaining integrity and transparency. Sparcblock’s product SparcPay is an integrated, secure, digital solution that allows complete review...show more
Speaking on: Intuit Prosperity Accelerator Showcase
Emily Walsh is a Lead Investor at Georgian Partners. In this role, Emily makes investments in high growth business software companies including sourcing investment opportunities, leading the due diligence process, and advising companies post-investment. She also works across our portfolio helping companies on operational effectiveness and strategy, with a particular...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #4; Meeting Exchanges Growth Stage Investors: Ontario Capital Growth Corporation, Georgian, TIMIA Capital
Christian Weedbrook is the CEO & Founder of Xanadu Quantum Technologies, a Canadian quantum technology company building universal quantum computers using light. Over the last 15 years, he has been at the forefront of bringing quantum technology to the world through his research and leadership in academia, government and industry....show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #1
Irene Weibel has been in the kids content business for more than 20 years. She started her own company Sutikki 2017 to produce the series Moon and Me, a BBC commission created by Teletubbies co-creator, Andy Davenport. Moon and Me is currently a top kids series on Cbeebies in...show more
Speaking on: Growing Your Media Company: When to Hire, When to Fire
Boris Wertz is one of the top tech early-stage investors in North-America and the founding partner of version one ventures. His portfolio encompasses over 50 early-stage consumer internet and enterprise companies, including Clio, Edmodo, Flurry, Frank & Oak, Indiegogo, Julep,...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #1
Dr. Mike Wesolowski, PhD is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Luxsonic Technologies. Luxsonic develops immersive software that improves global access to hands-on medical education, professional training, and healthcare delivery. Mike is an avid proponent of immersive technologies, like virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR). He champions immersive tech as...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #3
David has 18 years of investment banking experience including as Head of BMO Capital Markets’ Technology group. Prior to joining BMO Capital Markets in 2008, David spent eight years covering the sector at another Canadian bank owned dealer. David has...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #2; CIX 2020 Innovator of the Year Presentation and Keynote
Kathryn Wortsman is based in Toronto and leads Amplify Capital LP II, a Canadian based impact venture fund focused on early stage technology companies solving for clean energy, improved education, and better health.
Kathryn started her career in investment banking and then went on to spent most of her 20-year career...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #2; Meeting Exchanges Early Stage Investors: BCF Ventures, Amplify Capital, Information Venture Partners
Margaret Wu is a Lead Investor at Georgian focused on business software companies exploiting Applied AI. Prior to Georgian, she was a Product Manager for mobile marketing at Amazon, co-founded a biotech company and served as COO at OneSpout, a local e-commerce startup. Margaret began her career in consulting at...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #1; CIX Top 10 Growth Showcase #2
Paul Yanover was named Fandango President in 2012, and since then has grown the company from a popular U.S. movie ticketing utility into an international digital network for all things movies. Serving more than 67 million unique visitors per month globally, Fandango provides best-in-class movie information, ticketing to more than...show more
Speaking on: The View From Here: navigating the media landscape post-2020
Fatima is the co-founder of Quill, the world’s first one-stop marketplace and agency where podcasters and brands can find pre-vetted experts who will save them time, improve their podcast quality, and help grow their audience. She’s also the founder of the Listen In Conference in LA, an event that supports...show more
Speaking on: The Future of Higher Education
Sharon Zohar is a serial entrepreneur and investor with more than twenty years experience founding, investing, advising, and operating technology, internet, and digital media companies. She is driven by her passion to identify new innovative technologies and business models that have the potential to disrupt traditional markets and are designed...show more
Speaking on: The Media Business Pitch: When, How, and Who to Pitch
Arash is a community family physician in Brantford, Ontario. He has a special focus on mental health and addictions and is frequently a guest lecturer on these topics across the country. He is a clinical professor at McMaster University. He has been in multiple healthcare leadership roles and has won...show more
Speaking on: CIX Top 20 Early Showcase #2
