As Chief Technology Officer at Interac Corp., JJeff is responsible for all technology, security, data, and infrastructure at Interac, with a focus on ensuring the reliability and security of our national payments platforms while driving technological innovations that meet the evolving digital needs of Canadians. He brings over 25 years of experience in technology strategy and transformation, operations, delivery, security and data management. Prior to Interac, Jeff held progressive leadership roles throughout his tenure with TD, including EVP, Technology & Data Risk Management, EVP and Group CIO, Enterprise Technology Solutions, CIO, TD Canadian Banking, CIO TD America’s Most Convenient Bank, CIO Wholesale Banking and Chief Auditor. Jeff is Chair of the Advisory Board for Canadian Institute of Cyber Security. He is active in the community, volunteering as a youth baseball coach, as well as with community organizations including Etobicoke Swim Club and Ontario Track3 Ski Association for the Disabled.
Dr. Luigi Benedicenti is a full professor and dean in the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of New Brunswick. Luigi received his Laurea in Electrical Engineering and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Genoa, Italy. He is a Professional Engineer licensed in New Brunswick and a licensed Italian Engineer. His collaborative network extends beyond New Brunswick and Canada through collaborative work with colleagues in Europe, South East Asia and North America.
Luigi’s current research is in three areas: Software Agents, Software Process and New Media Technology. He envisions the unification of platform, tools and optimizations for the provision of persistent distributed digital services, regardless of people’s location and delivery device.
Bonnie Butlin, also known around the world as “Canada’s First Lady of Security”, is the co-founder and executive director of the Security Partners’ Forum (SPF), a first-of-its-kind agile international network of security professionals, bridging all domains and disciplines of security. Under the SPF banner, she created the Women in Security and Resilience Alliance, which engages a growing network of women in security and resilience associations and groups globally.
Since 2013, Bonnie has received some 24 international and national-level awards and accolades related to security, resilience and leadership, including being named to the Top 25 “Women of Influence” for 2021, as well as a “Fellow of (ISC)2” in 2020. In 2017, she was appointed to the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network in Cybersecurity, and in 2018 was appointed to the Global Advisory Council of the Institute of Strategic Risk Management.
Benoît Dupont is the holder of the Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity and the Research Chair for the Prevention of Cybercrime. He is a Professor of Criminology at the Université de Montréal and the Scientific Director of the Smart Cybersecurity Network (SERENE-RISC), which he founded in 2014. Benoît Dupont also sits as an observer representing the research community on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX) and is a member of CATAAlliance's Cybercrime Advisory Council.
His current research interests focus on the governance of security and the use of networked initiatives to enhance offline and online safety, the coevolution of crime and technology, and in particular the social organization of malicious hackers, as well as the international comparison and evaluation of effective and efficient cybersecurity policies. He has published extensively in these fields.
Elaine Hum is Director, Cybersecurity Partnerships at Scotiabank, where she develops partnerships with academic and non-academic institutions for talent and innovation. She is also a coach for the Scotiabank Ignition program, a STEM recent graduate rotation program for Technology. Currently, Elaine also serves as a Program Advisory Committee member for the Cybersecurity Graduate Certificate Program at Centennial College and as an Advisory Board Member for Palette and Fields Cybersecurity Accelerated Program.
Elaine has worked in the financial industry for over 25 years and spent most of her career at the Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) where she provided analysis and advice regarding the financial industry operational resilience, cybersecurity and business continuity issues. She was also a federal lobbyist advocating for cybersecurity related issues. Furthermore, Elaine managed the annual industry Cybersecurity conference, Canadian Financial Institutions - Computer Incident Response Team (CFI-CIRT) conference for 13 years, hosting over 600 IT security professionals annually in the banking industry.
During her career at the CBA, Elaine held roles in IT security, business continuity, domestic banking operations, payments and government retail debt, and coordinated fundraising campaigns for not-for-profit charitable organizations such as the Canadian Red Cross, the Terry Fox Foundation and UNICEF.
In 2013, she was appointed Chairperson for the Canadian Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) for a three-year term, acting as an ambassador for the Canadian User Group Committee and SWIFT, a financial industry member-owned cooperative that provides secure, global financial messaging services. She also served as Secretary for the SWIFT Canadian User and Member Group for more than a decade.
Keith Jansa is the Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Governance Council, formerly known as the CIO Strategy Council. With over 15 years of experience in public, private, and non-profit sectors, Keith has a proven track record of leading diverse teams to generate successful business strategies and deliver client-focused solutions. Keith is also an expert in the strategic application of standards and certification.
Previously, as Executive Director of the CIO Strategy Council, Keith provided executive leadership in the design and successful accreditation of the organization's standards-setting process, driving the creation of national standards to advance Canada's digital economy. His expertise in standards development has led the Council to receive approval from the international community for it to submit its standards and specifications for review and recognition as international standards.
Keith is an appointed member of Ontario’s Health Data Council and Chair of its Strategic Working Group on Data Governance and Data Stewardship.
Keith holds a bachelor’s in health sciences honours degree from the University of Ottawa. He is married to his university sweetheart, Kayla Jansa, and enjoys chasing after his 3 children.
Dr. David MaGee is the Vice-President of Research at the University of New Brunswick (UNB). He is a native New Brunswicker, and received both his B.Sc. in Chemistry (1982) and his Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry (1987) from UNB. Dr. MaGee has been active with UNB in a faculty role since 1990, serving in many capacities, including: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor of Chemistry, Chair of the Department of Chemistry, and Dean of Science, in addition to serving on numerous university committees. Dr. MaGee’s research expertise lies in the development of new and/or simpler ways to make biologically-interesting and structurally-challenging natural products, including anti-cancer and anti-microbial compounds.
Claudette McGowan is a global information technology leader with more than 20 years of success leading digital transformations, optimizing infrastructure and designing new approaches that improve service and security experiences. She has worked in the technology industry for several organizations such as Deloitte, Metropolitan Police Services, North York General Hospital, Bank of Montreal and TD Bank. Claudette began her career at BMO in 2000 and held multiple senior leadership roles including Chief Information Officer, Enterprise Technology Experience and Vice President of Digital Workspace Services. In 2020, she joined TD Bank as Global Executive Officer, Protect Fusion and Cyber Experience.
In her spare time, Claudette writes books for children, builds robots and is the founder of the Black Arts & Innovation Expo. Claudette holds a Bachelor of Arts from Lakehead University, a Master of Business Administration from Athabasca University, Certificates in Artificial Intelligence, IT Management, Project Management and Smart Buildings from Rotman, Ontario Tech University, Schulich School of Business, and Harvard Graduate School of Design respectively.
She is the recipient of several prestigious awards: In 2021, she was awarded Top 20 Women in Cybersecurity from IT World Canada. In 2020, she was recognized in the 6th edition of Bay Street Bull’s POWER 50 issue that celebrates Canadians that are shaping the world.
In 2020, Toronto Life recognized Claudette as one of the city's Top 50 Most Influential Torontonians, Women’s Executive Network recognized her as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada, AdWeek Magazine heralded Claudette as a Toronto Brand Star, and the Digital Finance Institute honoured her as one of the Top 50 Canadian Women in FinTech.
Steve Milbury, Vice President of Investment and Trade has worked in Economic Development for the Province of New Brunswick for the past 9 years, bringing over 23 years of private sector experience with him. He has worked and traveled extensively and lived in Calgary and Vancouver for 10 years. In his time with the Government of New Brunswick, Steve has helped bring new investments to the province.
As the Vice President of Investment and Trade for Opportunities NB, Steve is responsible for leading all foreign activity as it relates to Foreign Direct Investment, Trade and international offices. His team is proactively engaged in driving investment opportunities in emerging sectors such as, Energy Innovation, Cyber, Digital Health, as well as supporting traditional sectors like Manufacturing, Agritech and the ICT sectors.
He is active in his community volunteering as the Vice President with the U18 Major AAA Vito’s Hockey program, coaching the Kennebecasis Valley High School Boys AAA Hockey Team, and as a Director with the YMCA.
SVP Cyber Security, Networks & Technology Risk, Loblaw Companies Limited
A dual Canadian and U.S. citizen with over 25 years of international executive experience, Greg is a recognized expert in business-focused technology and cybersecurity. He has a proven record of establishing public-private partnerships and delivering transformational technological solutions through high-performing, people-centric teams.
Greg is committed to community engagement, serving as the Technology & Cyber Security Director-in-Residence for Rotman's National ICD Directors Education Program. An academic author, he has instructed over 3,300 board members. As a co-founder of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, Greg has developed inclusive cybersecurity programs that have trained over 800 students, including veterans, women, and displaced workers. He also serves as a Board Director for the National Cyber Consortium, advancing cybersecurity innovation and talent development in Canada.
Greg frequently advises boards, senior executives, the Government of Canada, and academic institutions on policy, IT, networks, cybersecurity, AI, and digital transformation. He serves as a Board Director for the National Cybersecurity Consortium, advancing cyber innovation and talent development in Canada. Greg also served as the industry co-chair for the Canadian Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (CSTAC) from 2020 to 2023, facilitating the Telecommunications Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between government and industry. Greg holds degrees from the University of Toronto and Athabasca University, as well as the ICD.D designation.
Passionate about community involvement, Greg serves as the Cyber Security and Technology for Rotman's National ICD Directors Education Program, is academically published, and has instructed 2,700+ board members. He helped co-found Toronto Metropolitan University’s Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, whose inclusive and innovative cyber security programs have trained 700+ students, including veterans, women, and displaced workers.
In 2007, Antoine Normand has taken over the management of Bluebear LES, a forensic software company specialized in the fight against online child exploitation. Normand is a technology and cybercrime expert. He has delivered numerous conferences on the topic of cybercrime and visual data forensic to police agencies of Europe, Asia and the USA. In February 2013, Antoine Normand was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his commitment to combating child exploitation on the Internet worldwide.
Before being the CEO and majority shareholder at Bluebear LES, Antoine co-founded Cactus Commerce in 1995. In 2006, Cactus employed a team of 125 professionals located in Cactus offices of Gatineau, Toronto, Montréal and Chicago. In 2017, Normand was elected chairman of the Canadian cybersecurity cluster: IN-SEC-M.
Antoine received his Civil Law License from Ottawa University in 1996.
Jennifer Quaid is the Executive Director of the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX), Canada’s preeminent private sector organization for cross-sector collaboration, enabling cyber resilience and preparedness in its members. She is responsible for advancing the mission and purpose of the CCTX and delivering value to the membership. With extensive experience in the tech sector and with membership-based organizations, Jennifer excels at creating an environment that fosters customer focus and service delivery.
Jennifer has 30 years of experience creating value in emerging businesses, in Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom.
Josée Tassé is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of New Brunswick, Saint John campus. Since July 2021, she has also been the Chair of her department. Her expertise is in Software Engineering, in particular in the area of software project management and quality assurance, with an emphasis in measurement-based decision making.
Her most recent research work has evolved to the area of Mining Software Repositories (i.e., the application of data mining techniques to solve software engineering problems). Her focus has been on defect prediction models and on systems to provide early warnings on potentially-risky situations during software development. She has also taught courses in various other areas, the most recent ones being in algorithmics and intro to computer programming.
Olivera Zatezalo is a General Manager responsible for Cybersecurity and Privacy at Suncor. She is best known for creating value through a collaborative leadership style, agile execution and for her global cyber security expertise.
Up until joining Suncor, Olivera has spent over 25 years in Canadian telecommunication industry, building and securing networks for big Canadian enterprises, as well as for the Canadian government. She brings expertise in cybersecurity operations and strategy, governance, risk and compliance, as well as project management and cyber technology. She is a former member of the Canadian Security Telecommunication Advisory Committee, and remains active as a speaker with various cyber security industry associations and forums.
In 2020, Olivera was recognized as a Top 20 Women in Cybersecurity in Canada by IT World Canada and WISECRA. Olivera has a Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Belgrade, Serbia and is a Certified Information Security Manager.
Pierre Zundel is the President and CEO of the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick, a French language college with five campuses in Northern and South Eastern New Brunswick. CCNB is home of CCNB-INNOV, its applied research arm which boasts an NSERC-funded technology access centre focusing on cutting edge manufacturing.
From August 2017 to June 2019, he was Interim President and Vice-Chancellor of Laurentian University. Laurentian is a bilingual and tri-cultural (English, French and Indigenous) university with 10,000 students housed in Sudbury, Ontario. He joined Laurentian in 2016 as Vice-President Academic and Provost. As Interim President, he was Chair of the Board of Directors of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. He was also member of the Board of Directors for USPORT, Canada’s university sport coordinating and regulating body.
From 2009-2016, he was President of the University of Sudbury, a bilingual, tri-cultural institution in the Jesuit tradition federated with Laurentian University.
He has taught forestry at both the Université de Moncton (UdeM) from 1986-1991 and the University of New Brunswick (UNB) from 1991-2009, specializing in logging and forest operations planning. He was Managing Editor of the International Journal of Forest Engineering from 2000-2005. In addition to his work as a professor, he has worked in academic leadership – as founding Department Chair of the School of Forest Science at UdeM (1988-91) and as Dean of Renaissance College, UNB’s award-winning interdisciplinary leadership school from 2004-2009.
He is a graduate of the University of Toronto (Bachelors and Masters) and of the Université Laval (PhD) in forestry. He also holds an Emergency Medical Technician (paramedic) diploma and a range of Community College of New Brunswick firefighting certifications.
He was named a 3M National Teaching Fellow by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in 2003 and received the Educational Leadership Award from the Atlantic Association of Universities in 2002 and the UNB Teaching Professorship in 2001.
He was Vice-Chair of the Board of the Greater Sudbury Development Corporation and formerly Chair of its Community Economic Development Committee. He was a volunteer fire fighter for 13 years, a paramedic for four years and eventually fire chief for six years in the village of Stanley, New Brunswick.
