Open Banking Expo Canada Speakers

As the Open Banking and Blockchain Leader, Abhishek leads EY Canada’s Banking Technology Consulting practice.

Abhishek focuses on the transformative impact technology has on the banking industry.

He works with clients to strategize and operationalize major transformative initiatives within Core Banking Operations, Retail & Commercial Banking, Finance & Treasury and Payments. Abhishek’s current focus includes Digital Adoption, Innovation, Open Banking, Open APIs, Enterprise Architecture, Data Management, Analytics and IT Strategy.

Abhishek also leads EY’s Blockchain practice in Canada across all sectors, working with clients as they understand the fundamental impact blockchain has to their operating & business models.

Abhishek significant international experience with top-tier consulting firms and within the banking industry. He has played significant roles in setting up de-novo banks in different jurisdictions and has held various management positions in established global banks.

Alex Vronces is the executive director of Fintechs Canada, the unified voice for fintech in Canada. Fintechs Canada is a public policy advocacy group of Canada’s most innovative financial technology companies. Collectively serving millions of Canadians on a daily basis, the organization’s membership includes market-leading Canadian fintechs, the technology companies that power the credit union space, fintech-friendly financial institutions, and global fintech companies, among others.

André Gagné is the President and CEO of GFT Canada. Passionate about information technology, he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Laval University, and he has more than 25 years of experience in IT. His career choice was first motivated by his passion for technology and his need to create and implement solutions that improve people’s daily lives.

He has forged his career through his participation in several large-scale projects with world-renowned software companies and local and international service companies. Over the years, he has used his problem-solving skills, his pragmatism and his mastery of technology to ensure that objectives were met.

He looks forward to make GFT Canada a true leader of the digital transformation in the insurance and banking industries in Canada. Thanks to the strength of their teams in Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto, the professionalism of their experts and the undeniable assets that the Group’s strength brings, GFT Canada has carved out an enviable position in the market.

Bhavna Kaushal has 20 years experience in both Fintech and Fortune 100 companies spanning Banking, Consulting, Payments and Loyalty. She currently provides independent advisory services in these areas. Most recently she led strategic partnerships for Scotiabank’s international retail and digital business, and was charged with the design and rollout of a transformative payments digitization mandate and multi-product loyalty strategy, across 25+ LAC markets. Previously she spearheaded partnerships and payments strategy at Berkeley Payments, a high growth Canadian fintech, and led payments innovation at American Express. Bhavna is a frequent thought leader at industry forums, and has served on boards and committees, helping shape industry dialogues with Euromonitor International, the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization and the Association of Card Technology in Canada. She is the 2023 recipient of the Women in Payments Canada Social Impact and Sustainability award. Bhavna has an MBA from the Schulich School of Business.

Bhuvan Anand is a seasoned engineering leader with over 18 years of experience in the Financial Services industry, specializing in software development and technology transformation for a global bank. Renowned for his strategic decision-making and leadership, Bhuvan has overseen numerous Capital Market IT programs, particularly in the Fixed Income front office and Post Trade settlement domains. A true globetrotter, Bhuvan boasts global experience spanning Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America, where he has spearheaded innovative digital financial solutions focused on efficiency and inclusivity. Throughout his distinguished career, Bhuvan has been at the forefront of driving transformative initiatives such as cloud adoption, payment modernization programs, and the implementation of DevOps and SRE concepts. Leveraging his innate ability to unravel complex problems, collaborate, and craft innovative solutions, Bhuvan blends deep technical expertise with a strategic business perspective to drive impactful change and deliver measurable results.

Brian Harris is the President and CEO of Beem Credit Union. Founded by Gulf & Fraser and Interior Savings, Beem is the second largest provincially regulated credit union in BC with approximately $10 billion in total assets under administration. Beem Credit Union offers personal and commercial banking and a full range of insurance and wealth management services to over 160,000 members from 53 branches in communities that span BC from downtown Vancouver to the North Peace region.

Born and raised in British Columbia, with a career that has taken him across the globe, Brian has spent 20 years leading financial services companies through significant growth while helping them adapt to an unprecedented pace of change.

After members voted in favour of a merger between Interior Savings and Gulf & Fraser in the Fall of 2023, the credit unions came together to form Beem Credit Union, naming Brian as President and CEO on January 1, 2024. Prior to joining Interior Savings as President and CEO in 2022, Brian was Chief Product Officer at Nets, a leading payments provider based in the Nordics, where he and his team helped revolutionize the consumer and small business digital experience for more than 150 European financial institutions. He has also held executive leadership roles at Currencies Direct and Western Union Business Solutions, two companies that are leading the evolution of international money transfer systems and business payment solutions in Europe and across the globe.

Brigit Carroll is Policy Lead, North America at Wise. She advocates for Wise’s mission of instant, convenient, transparent and eventually free cross-border payments vis-a-vis policymakers in the U.S., Canada and beyond. Based in Washington, D.C., Brigit joined Wise’s policy team in Brussels in 2019, focused on EU policy. Prior to joining Wise, Brigit gained 5+ years’ experience in public affairs and advocacy in Brussels, at global communications firm FleishmanHillard and the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU.

Carol Haverty is Vice President of Partnerships at Plooto, a leading payment automation solution providing end-to-end AP and AR for small-to-medium sized businesses across North America. With over 20 years of experience in finance and technology, including tenures at Xero, PayPal, eBay, and Bank of America, Carol is passionate about connecting innovative technology providers and financial institutions to build modern ecosystems that help SMBs thrive. She holds an A.B. from Princeton University and enjoys an active life including volunteer education efforts, spending time outdoors, travel, and the study of multiple foreign languages.

Cathy Ly leads the Customer Insights, Design Thinking, Customer Care Centre and Digital Banking Back Office for Equitable Bank. While these four functions appear disparate at first glance, they are united by an obsession with EQ Bank’s customers – whether that’s in understanding their needs, designing solutions to their pain points, answering their calls or processing their transactions. It is this same customer focus that also gives Cathy an important vantage point to lead Equitable Bank’s Open Banking strategy as the bank aims to leverage the pro-customer potential of Open Banking as part of its Challenger Bank mandate.

Prior to EQ Bank, Cathy worked for over a decade as a management consultant at ZS Associates, the Boston Consulting Group, Jackman Reinvents, and independently as a CX advisor to executive teams in hospitality, retail and financial services. She has deep empathy for the experiences of small business owners having also spent four years of her career running a home décor business and getting shot down by many a small business loan officer.

Cormac is a Senior Manager in EY’s Banking and Risk Technology Consulting practice. He has 10 years of consulting experience in Financial Services, working primarily with financial services firms as they explore and execute large transformation programs. He has led the development EY Canada’s market and regulatory understanding of open banking in the Canadian market and is responsible for bringing global insights to our clients in Canada. His experience spans various functional areas including risk, technology and data, as well as various business lines including retail banking, capital markets, wealth & asset management, and insurance.

Craig Reiff is Vice President, Consumer Products and Solutions for Mastercard Canada. Craig is responsible for the strategic direction, management, and end-to-end consumer-centric solution development of Mastercard Canada’s consumer credit, prepaid, debit, BNPL, and digital products. Craig has over 19 years of payments industry experience – the last 12 at Mastercard. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, and raised in Toronto, Canada. Craig has an Honours Business Administration (HBA) Degree from the Ivey School of Business at Western University.

Darryl Kingston is the Executive Director of the Digital Governance Standards Institute (DGSI), formerly the CIO Strategy Council. He joined the CIO Strategy Council as Senior Director of Standards and Technology on July 4th, 2022. In this role, he leads a broad portfolio of projects creating the conditions for the development of responsible, trustworthy, and sustainable digital technology standards in Canada.

Prior to joining the CIO Strategy Council, Darryl was with the Health Standards Organization (HSO) as Director of Standards and Evidence Development. In his role he had oversight of standards development, including strategic oversight, quality management, risk management and production. While at HSO the team led the development of a number of pivotal standards which will change the way care is received for patients and families, among these include palliative care, integrated health systems, long term care services, and governance and leadership of health care and social service organizations. A key achievement was the development of a cultural safety and humility standard for the province of British Columbia that was developed using an indigenous methodology (two eye seeing) which was established by HSO in partnership with the First Nations Health Authority of British Columbia.

Prior to joining HSO Darryl was with the Standards Council of Canada where he held a number of different positions beginning in 1998. The last position held at SCC was Director of Global Standards where Darryl was responsible for the strategic oversight of the Canadian Standards Development Program, the International Standards Development Program and the SCC Member Program.
Darryl has participated in ISO meetings as a Canadian delegate since 2004 and has spoken at various international workshops and conferences on the benefits of standardization and promoting stakeholder participation in the standards development process. Darryl is a graduate of the University of Ottawa and was the recipient of the 2010 Joe McMahon Memorial Dedicated Service Award for outstanding service and contribution to the Canadian standards system.

David is a Partner in the Business Consulting practice of EY, focused on Financial Services, and is the Canadian national leader in Corporate, Commercial, and Small Business Banking. He has over ten years of management consulting experience and over twenty years experience in Retail and Commercial Banking, and has led multiple programs in commercial banking transformation and customer strategy and engagement. David has held executive roles at two top five Canadian banks: VP of Client Strategy & Insights and VP of Commercial Workforce Effectiveness.

David is an accomplished Banking and Payments executive with in-depth knowledge acquired within the Canadian and Global banking landscape. He is a subject matter expert on open banking / open finance, real-time payments, and innovative overlay services – bringing expert insight and thought leadership covering the full spectrum from retail and wholesale payments to clearing and settlement. David has worked with FIs across North America to support the development of open banking and payments strategies; helping clients take their existing strategies and create pragmatic, executable roadmaps to modernize and digitally transform their business.

Prior to joining CGI, David was the strategy & innovation executive at Everlink Payment Services, working with credit unions and tier II banks to launch new payment products and services. David has held senior positions at Visa Canada and at Moneris Solutions, working extensively with payments, payment networks and gateways. He started his career at Bank of Montreal amid the run-up to launching the first virtual bank in Canada.

Frédéric Wilson is Counsel and National Co-Leader of BLG’s Privacy Group. He handles every facet of privacy and cybersecurity law. Specifically, he helps his clients manage privacy incidents, deal with regulators, and operationalize compliance programs. Prior to joining BLG, Frédéric served as a senior privacy counsel at a major Canadian financial institution. In this role, he was in charge of privacy incident management and contributed to the implementation of a vast privacy compliance program. Before that, he practised commercial litigation for eight years at an international law firm, specializing in class action and consumer law.

Geetika Tiwari, a techno-functional leader with over 18 years of rich expertise in the financial domain, notably in software development, product consulting, and business transformations, is a luminary in the payment ecosystems of North America. As a visionary Director, she has been at the forefront of spearheading innovative digital financial solutions, focusing on efficiency and inclusivity, particularly for market segments traditionally left behind.

Her passion lies in unlocking the potential within the payment grid, bringing forth cutting-edge advancements to revolutionize the industry. Before her current tenure at CIBC, Geetika honed her skills as a Senior Consultant at Tata Consulting Services Limited Canada, contributing her acumen to the credit and financial domains, including pivotal projects with Equifax and the Reserve Bank.

Throughout her illustrious career, she has been instrumental in driving transformational programs in both retail and commercial payment spheres. Known for her innate ability to unravel complex problems, Geetika crafts pioneering solutions that blend her deep technical know-how with a strategic business perspective.

Geetika’s commitment extends globally, having bolstered international branches with her expertise. Her approach to leadership in payments is not just about innovation but also about empowerment and strategic foresight. Outside the professional realm, she dedicates time to exploring industry trends and cherishing moments with her family.

Jacqueline is co-lead of Blakes Financial Services Regulatory group. Her practice focuses on all aspects of regulatory compliance in the retail financial services industry with a particular expertise in the payments and card industry at both the federal and provincial levels. She provides advice to regulated financial institutions and non-bank institutions, money services businesses, foreign exchange dealers, mobile payments service providers, digital currency, crypto currency exchanges and others.

Jacqueline also provides a wide range of advice on regulatory issues with respect to the development of new payment products and distribution networks and on regulatory compliance with respect to payment systems legislation and consumer protection legislation.

Explorer, Teacher, Coach

If I ever get the opportunity for a memoir, well one that someone would read, it would be called “The Accidental Career”. I’m fascinated with physics and their applications in the real world, and here I am leading Digital Transformation at Mainstreet Credit Union.

How did I get here? A long, winding, and amazing road full of luck and leaps.

I obtained an engineering degree, Western 2004, and learned that the best part of my program was learning to break things down and put them back together in new ways. Yet, I graduated as an Engineer with no awareness of where I could go. After experiences with a few companies in building automation and energy, I landed a role at TD Bank and the idea of a career started to form.

My roles included managing an asbestos program, a construction pipeline, distribution and channels strategy, and leading a product group. Through this array of widely diverging jobs, I learned that the best part of every role was working out how to help each team achieve more than they thought possible, and use technology to make things easier.

Digital Transformation is the perfect next step and I have been with Mainstreet Credit Union, making it even easier for our members to do business with us.

My career so far has helped me uncover my purpose:

use my positivity and ability to challenge, to bring a smile to everyone I meet,

and for those willing, help them achieve their adventure

I live in London with my wife, Jen, our three year-old daughter Eva, and our menagerie of dogs (Oliver, Piper, and Morgan), and cat Phoebe. 

I am passionate about strong communities, and am proud to work with a group that reinvests. I volunteer with the United Way, Animal Rescue Foundation, Verge Social Capital, and the London Chamber of Commerce. As a proud southwestern-Ontarian, I was honoured to be recognized by Business London Magazine in 2016 as a “Top 20 Under 40” recipient.

My hobbies include getting lost in a solid video game or novel, playing baseball, and teaching myself to drum. Recently, I’ve taken any chance I can to be out cycling and you are likely find me in a coffee shop in any of our many towns. 

Sharing my favourite…

Books: “1984”, “Infinite Jest”

Films: “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Office Space”, “Charade”

Video Games: “Bioshock”, “Dark Souls”

At J.P. Morgan, Jason is the Head of Product Delivery for Embedded Banking, an innovative solution that enables leading technology companies to seamlessly integrate banking services into their existing platforms.

Prior to joining the firm, Jason held multiple Executive roles at TD Bank Group and TD Securities. He started his corporate career in Management Consulting with a focus on the Financial Services sector.

He holds a Bachelor’s of Engineering and completed his MBA from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

Jason currently lives in Toronto with his wife and two little boys. Before embracing diaper duty, Jason was an avid traveler. His most memorable adventures include: Everest Base Camp in Nepal, the Tour du Mont Blanc, and Patagonia.

Jeremy Bornstein is the Chief Revenue Officer for Peoples Group, a privately held Canadian bank and trust company focused on embedding financial services in everyday experiences. Jeremy is responsible for strategy, sales, and marketing in his role. Before joining Peoples, Jeremy held various senior roles at Mastercard, led the next generation of payments and strategy at RBC, and continues to recover from a decade-long career as strategy consultant. Jeremy splits his time in Toronto with his wife at home and his kids at the hockey arena and dance studio.

John Pitts is the Head of Policy for Plaid, a financial services technology company. Plaid helps consumers connect their financial services accounts to popular apps like Venmo, Betterment, and Acorns. In his role as Head of Policy, John advocates for consumers’ right to access, share, and control their financial data. He also advocates for financial data practices based on consumer-first principles of transparency, permission, and privacy. He has consulted on financial data and consumer protection laws and regulations in the United States, Canada, the UK, the European Union, and Australia.

Before joining Plaid, John served as the Deputy Assistant Director for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. At the Bureau, John worked with the state Attorneys General to promote cooperation and coordination between the states in enforcing the Dodd-Frank Consumer Financial Protection Act. He was a regular speaker on NAAG, CWAG, and State Center panels on topics including student lending, payday lending, and emerging financial technologies like cryptocurrencies. John started his career as an attorney with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Kartik Kamat is the Vice President for Payments, Analytics & Fraud Mitigation at EQ Bank. In Payments, his responsibilities include managing various products for money movement within the digital bank and spearheading the development of a Payments-as-a-Service business aimed at fostering innovation and growth within the Canadian payments ecosystem. Prior to joining EQ Bank, he gained extensive experience in the financial services industry as a strategy consultant at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). His work at BCG involved advising clients on corporate strategy and facilitating large-scale transformations within their organizations. Before his tenure at BCG, Kartik held several positions at Capital One across their US Business Banking & Canadian Credit Card divisions. He holds an MBA from London Business School, and a B.Eng and M.Eng in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Madras. He is based in Toronto.

Krista Broughton brings over a decade of experience developing the emerging payment landscape, working closely with partners to bring new lines of business to market. Krista has driven growth within issuing, acquiring, tech incubator, start up and mobility environments, working with organizations including Scotiabank, Moneris, ElementAI and Telus.

She brings a passion for data driven collaborations and a curiosity about innovation within consumer directed finance. Krista holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Matthew is Counsel at BLG’s Toronto office with a focus on financial services law. Matthew advises clients on all aspects of regulatory compliance, including, banking, payments, fintech, consumer protection, anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing, and digital assets. Prior to joining BLG, Matthew spent nearly eight years at the Bank of Canada and Finance Canada, where he held increasingly senior roles working on a variety of policy, legislative and regulatory matters in the financial services space.

Mauricio leads the Banking & Capital Markets Sector for Canada. He has 30 years of consulting experience, primarily in financial services where he has worked leading large client transformation programs as well as strategic growth initiatives. His experience has been with Retail Banking, Commercial as well as Wealth and Asset Management. Actively participated in technology forums and associations to represent the IT industry with the Ecosystem.

Mauricio is a graduate of Business at the Universidad Iberoamericana as well as postgraduate studies at IPADE business school.

Michael Cascone is the Vice President of Government Experience, Americas, at Xero. Prior to joining Xero in 2021, Michael was the founding Senior Director of the Scale-Up Institute Toronto at the Toronto Region Board of Trade. He led the launch of the small business accelerator, and ran a number of high impact programs focused on small business growth and digitization. In his time leading the organization, the Scale-Up Institute Toronto supported over 2,000 small businesses across Ontario, securing significant private and public sector investment, and winning the 2020 Ontario Chamber of Commerce Chair’s Award for Innovative Programming. Michael also has over ten years of experience in both the federal and provincial governments, focusing on innovation and scale-up policy, trade agreement negotiation, and the automotive sector. He actively participates in the small business research community as well, acting as an expert advisor on a number of research councils. He is the Vice Chair and Treasurer of the Scugog Township Economic Development Advisory Committee.

With over 20 years of experience in IT delivery and digital strategy, Natacha is an innovation leader and key player in National Bank of Canada’s digital transformation. She led the implementation of the first iteration of the Bank’s open banking channel and she is currently Business Lead in its Open Banking Center of Expertise.

An avid soccer player, Natacha brings a spirited energy on and off the field. She is involved in many leadership programs, as a coach and mentor, notably at National Bank, in the L’Effet A program and during conferences, such as Numérique au féminin.

Nicholas Schiavo is the Director of Federal Affairs with the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) where he leads government relations, stakeholder engagement and national advocacy strategies for 150 of Canada’s fastest-growing tech companies.

Nicholas is also the Executive Director of No Conversion Canada, a national, grassroots, nonprofit coalition he founded to ban conversion “therapy” practices in Canada. In December 2021, No Conversion Canada and partners successfully passed Bill C-4, officially outlawing conversion “therapy” practices in Canada.

Previously, Nicholas worked as a Director of Policy and Government Relations with Impact Public Affairs, a Policy Analyst with Fisheries and Oceans Canada on the G7 Task Force, as an Ontario Global Edge Fellow in Nairobi, Kenya and with the Green Party of Canada during the 2015 federal election. Over the years Nicholas has been fortunate to work with a number of global institutions as a delegate, including the Commonwealth, the World Bank Group and the United Nations.

From 2017-2019, Nicholas served as the Program Director of the Young Diplomats of Canada where he met with Cabinet and the Prime Minister to develop a national, youth agenda. In 2018, he was selected as a Future Leaders Connect Fellow by the British Council to develop a long term policy action plan on LGBTQ2+ rights with the University of Cambridge. Nicholas is passionate about community organizing and currently serves on the Government Relations Committee with the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and was named one of “Canada’s Future Foreign Policymakers” by Open Canada in June 2018 and an “Emerging Leader, Politics and Government” by the Peak in February 2023.

Nicholas holds a Bachelor of Arts, Honours Specialization in International Relations from Western University and a Master of Political Management as part of the Clayton H. Riddell Graduate Program from Carleton University.

Paul-Emile has been active in the fields of Research, Consulting, Fundraising and Business Development for the past fifteen years. In 2007, he completed his honours degree in History, Political Science and Canadian Studies at the University of Toronto. In 2010, he completed his Masters in Environmental Studies at York University, with a focus on Indigenous knowledge and a major research paper titled: The Traditional Rights of Ways on the Walpole Island First Nation.

He has served as a member of the Research Advisory Committee with Canadian Energy Research Institute, the Chair of the National Advisory Committee with ORIGIN Inc. and the current President and Chair of the Board of Directors for Aboriginal Legal Services. He currently resides in Toronto and is an avid follower of sports and business.

Robyn King is the Director for Industry Relations at Payments Canada, where she oversees the external relations function that manages stakeholder engagement with member financial institutions and broader stakeholder groups, and also oversees the industry governance function for the organization. She has more than 17 years of experience in transactional banking, merchant acquiring, card payments and payment modernization in both the Canadian and Southern African markets.

Ryan Grundy is the Lead of Ecosystem Management for Payments Canada, managing relationships for all non-Financial Institution players in the Canadian Payments Ecosystem including Paytech, Large Corporate, SME, and Government Segments. As part of his mandate, he leads public outreach and consultation to drive thought leadership and inform development of Canada’s first true Real Time Payments platform, supporting Payments Canada’s position as a public purpose organization committed to strengthening the safety and soundness of core systems, facilitating innovation and competition, and promoting a stronger Canadian economy.

Ryan Williams was elected to represent the riding of Bay of Quinte in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2021 Federal election.

He is also the Shadow Cabinet Minister for Pan–Canadian Trade and Competition where his role looks at creating competition in Canada whether it is the high price of cell phones and internet, banking or grocery stores.

MP Williams Private Members Bill 365 on Consumer-led banking passed second reading it the House of Commons in March of this year. This Bill was important to MP Williams as he believes it will enable consumer to transfer their financial data securely and efficiently among financial institutions and accredited third-party service providers and will give them a broader picture of their finances.

In the riding of Bay of Quinte, MP Williams is focused on the addiction and homelessness problems our communities are dealing with and working with businesses who are struggling under the current rising interest rates.

He is married to Allyson and they have 3 children Jack, Patrick and Zooey.

Before being elected as MP, Ryan was President of Williams Hotels and a City Councillor for the City of Belleville with roles in Economic and Destination Development Committee in Belleville, as Chair.

Ryan is Past-President of Bay of Quinte Tourism and the Bay of Quinte Living Council.

Ryan is the Past-Chair and Founder of QuinteVation which aimed to develop a more innovative Bay of Quinte.

Sabena Sandhu is the Manager of Policy at the Canadian Credit Union Association and is the association’s policy leader on federal files including payments modernization, digital ID, privacy, cyber-security, and open banking. Sabena also works closely with the CCUA’s provincial teams to maximize legislative and regulatory harmony across Canada’s provincially regulated credit unions and federally regulated financial institutions. CCUA is the national trade association that provides services to Canada’s 197 credit unions, caisses populaires, and regional Central organizations. The Canadian credit union systems represents over $300 billion in assets and serves more than 6 million Canadians.

As Director Strategy – Emerging Businesses, Sandeep leads BMO’s efforts on monitoring and driving strategy, integration and business response towards disruptive market forces that drive the evolution of payments, retail and business banking (such as Open Banking, RTR, Digital Assets, Banking as a Service & others). He is also responsible for the creation and ongoing refinement of Horizon 2, 3 roadmap to inform capability gaps to defend against disruptions.

Sandeep is a graduate of the Smith School of Business, Queen’s University with a Masters of Business Administration degree. He also holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the National Institute of Engineering in India.

Sean joined Okta in 2021, and has had the pleasure of helping companies from various industries including finance, natural resources, retail and more to increase their cybersecurity posture by leveraging Okta’s workforce and customer identity & access management, identity governance, and privileged access products. He is a vocal proponent for leveraging passwordless authentication and zero trust strategies, and he regularly speaks at and attends identity and security related events across western Canada.

Prior to Okta, Sean has worn many hats and worked many years around the globe in telecommunications, IoT, and even dabbled a bit in the drone industry. In the early 2000’s, Sean spent nearly a decade becoming intimately familiar with GSM, IETF, and IEEE specifications for networking protocols as he supported O2’s network in southern Germany, and negotiated technical acceptance for Nokia mobile phones in Japan. He is a constant learner and mentor, and is looking forward to the adoption of Open Banking standards in Canada.Sean enjoys leading volunteer events with Okta for Good in the Vancouver area, and while not at work you may hear him playing trumpet or french horn in concert and regiment marching bands.

Sean McCarthy is a Financial Services Industry leader at AWS. Sean is focused on helping customers identify use cases and industry solutions that leverage the transformational power of cloud computing. He engages with C-level executives and influencers at all levels, working closely with teams across AWS, to build relationships with financial institutions of all sizes across all market segments, from FinTech startups to the largest banks, insurers, broker- dealers, and exchange groups in the world.

Sean has almost 20 years of financial services experience, with leadership roles in digital transformation, customer experience, marketing strategy, partnerships, and payments. Sean joined AWS in 2019 as the Partner Alliance Lead for Deloitte Canada, and became the Financial Services Industry GTM leader for Canada in 2022. Sean’s passions are helping organizations transform the customer experience, developing new business opportunities, and leveraging the power of AWS to drive innovation.

Sean is based in Toronto, Canada.

Shanti Samaroo is the Chief Financial Officer at Atlantic Edge Credit Union, and is based in Pasadena, located on the west coast of the beautiful province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Shanti was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago; since migrating to Canada, has held several roles in her credit union. In her current role, she is responsible for the development, implementation, and maintenance of a risk management framework and comprehensive accounting and financial reporting system, as well as internal audit function for the credit union. Over her 25 years in the banking system, she has actively represented and advocated on strategic and governance issues, been involved in discussions with the regulator, government officials, and strategic system partners.

Atlantic Edge Credit Union is the second largest provincially regulated credit union in Canada’s most easterly province with approximately $484 million in total assets, with just over 23,700 members. A branch on Fogo Island is expected to be added to its network in the Fall of 2024, which will bring the total number of Atlantic Edge Credit Union branches to 16 spanning from South-central Labrador to St Johns located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland; across to Fogo Island, the largest of the offshore islands in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Atlantic Edge Credit Union is the result of a number of amalgamations of relatively smaller credit unions as well as organic growth, with deep roots in the fishing and forestry industries, serving communities dating back to the 1930s.

Atlantic Edge Credit Union is a full service financial institution, and is the only financial institution in some of the communities within which it operates.

Shruti is a purpose-driven Product leader with 15+ years of global experience spanning South East Asia, Middle East and Canada and Joined CIBC in April’21 where she launched the Costco Onboarding & Engagement journeys. She is currently working as a Director, Open Banking Strategy at CIBC leading Industry & Government engagement, Value Add Use cases and Data enablement Strategy. Shruti is also the Co-lead of CIBC’s International Professionals Network, an employee network helping newcomers in the bank. Shruti identifies herself as an intersectional feminist and believes in equality of opportunities and pay for women.

Stephanie Zee is Vice President, Enterprise Data Protection at Scotiabank. She has responsibility for the governance and oversight for Data Protection across the Scotiabank global footprint. Stephanie has more than 20 years of experience in treasury and card product management and innovation, sales and marketing, banking operations, and Payments, Operational, AML, Fraud and Cyber risk management.

Stephanie has earned the ICD.D designation for Corporate Governance from the Rotman School of Business, a Master of Laws Degree from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, and a Master of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Sue is Vice President, Payments Strategy and Relationships at Central 1. Sue is responsible for modernizing Central 1 payments services and mapping out the future payments strategy, one of Central 1’s key services to credit unions and many other financial institutions across Canada. Sue had dedicated much of her professional life to building solutions to deliver excellent payment experiences, at Interac Association, Visa Canada and Payments Canada. Sue has led transformational change in each of these organizations, including introducing chip cards at Interac and adding e-transfer to the Interac product suite, launching Visa Debit and tap/contactless payments with Visa, and leading industry and stakeholder relations and product strategy for payments modernization, at Payments Canada. Sue has also worked at a global fintech and as a federal regulator in the financial services area.

Susan joined TD Bank in 2018, bringing with her more than 25 years of digital and payments innovation, product development and business leadership experience from FIS (Fidelity Global Information Services), Metavante Corporation and S&P Global. At TD, she has been a champion for the modernization of U.S. and Canadian payments systems and a leader in ensuring that TD can offer its retail and business customers modern, trusted, connected and green payment capabilities. Susan and her team are responsible for bringing next generation real time, rich data, global, and digital payments capabilities to market. Among the many products they have launched in partnership with the lines of business are TD’s Global Transfer Marketplace, TD’s Real Time Loan Disbursements (U.S.), TD Instant Digital Issuance, TD Next Generation Business Payments, TD Zelle and TD Zelle Small Business. Susan has also championed an open payments API and framework strategy at TD to safely open the payments ecosystem for greater economic benefit and to foster innovation and inclusion. In addition, Susan and team have built a host of foundational shared capabilities that can be used across the enterprise to make TD’s payments systems more modern, cost effective, resilient and safe. Susan sits on the TCH (The Clearing House) Board and has also served on the Payments Canada board. She is a passionate advocate for innovation in Payments and she and her team are top patent filers in Payments in both the U.S. and Canada. At TD, Susan is also a champion of mental wellness, diversity in technology leadership and United Way support.

With a deep knowledge of the international payments ecosystem, Susan also played an active leadership role in both building out the digital payments and mobile banking solutions for more than 5,600 financial institutions globally including several of the largest institutions in North America and in building ecosystems of FinTech partnerships to expand Financial Institution markets. Susan has extensive experience developing next generation digital banking and digital payment solutions across both the retail and commercial business segments. She has also led best in class user experience and human factors engineering teams to support the launch of several major FinTech and EdTech platforms that are now household solutions and successfully led major transformational programs in the areas of women in technology, cybersecurity, agile development, legacy solution evolution and machine learning.

Combined with her technical expertise and tremendous growth orientation, Susan has a strong business leadership background, a proven track record of operations and P&L management and has completed multiple business transformations and acquisitions with a particular focus in payments. As President and EVP of FIS’s digital and payments line of businesses, Susan oversaw the growth of those business from 30MM U.S revenues to more than 600MM in U.S. revenues over a 7-year period. She was also responsible for the strategy and build out of FIS’s market leading digital and real time payment solutions. These solutions today form one of the primary backbones of real time payments in the U.S. .

Susan has a passion for engineering and science education in at risk populations and a strong interest in Indigenous arts. She has served as a volunteer and board member for organizations dedicated to the support of primary and secondary education in social entrepreneurship, technology and engineering for at risk and underserved populations. These organizations include Our Next Generation (Milwaukee, WI) and Alverno Business School (Milwaukee, WI). She is an active supporter of the United Way of GTA (Greater Toronto Area) and is involved in supporting Indigenous arts organizations including the Inuit Art Foundation.

Susan holds an MS in Engineering in Human Centered Design from the University of Washington.

Swati has over two decades of global Banking experience on both business & technology side. She focusses on business outcomes through digital transformation for Banks, Financial Services firms & Fintechs. She is passionate about enabling future forward solutions in Consumer Banking, Corporate Banking, Payments & Cards leveraging emerging technologies like API & AI, which drive the top line for her clients & hyperpersonalized experiences for their end-customers.

Tanya Woods leads Government and Regulatory Affairs for Questrade Financial Group, a successful private Canadian company with $45B AUA and a portfolio of leading companies offering innovative financial, home, lending, and insurance services online to help clients become much more financially successful and secure. She is a dynamic and specialized technology, regulatory, and trade lawyer, former trade negotiator, and technology policy expert. Woods advises governments and companies on digital trade, open finance and fintech issues, intellectual property, sustainability and resiliency, cyber security policy and global enforcement, digital literacy, and emerging technologies. She has served in Advisory, Board and C-suite legal and business roles successfully advancing the commercial and regulatory agendas of technology companies for 20 years, including Microsoft, Nintendo, Interac, and BCE Inc. Woods also launched and led Canada’s first blockchain and digital assets trade association, served as General Counsel & Corporate Secretary to launch Canada’s first digital asset miner on NASDAQ, supported the development of the first global charity-led algorithmic (AI) literacy program, and sat on the Board of Canada’s first publicly traded 4D “metaverse” studio. Tanya’s leadership and contributions have been recognized by the Government of Canada, IT World, the Obama Foundation, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, amongst others.

As Managing Counsel, Enterprise Payments in RBC’s Legal group, Tara provides legal and strategic advice to business partners on payments initiatives including industry and multi-FI collaborations, new and innovative payment products, Payments Canada’s bylaws and rules, including the Real Time Rail (RTR), and payments legislation such as the Retail Payments Activities Act and consumer driven banking. Prior to her role supporting Enterprise Payments, Tara was product lawyer supporting RBC credit cards and payment products, including for a B2B fintech acquired by RBC. Tara was an IP partner for many years at Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt LLP where she acted as a trusted advisor on complex business issues, advocacy, disputes and litigation strategies related to IP and technology. She also worked at BMO providing advice on technology contracts, IP and partnerships and collaborations with fintechs.