2020 WORLD CONGRESS SPEAKERS

IMAN ABUDAGGA

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE BUSINESS LEAD

Microsoft

Responsible and Trusted AI: The Importance of AI

Iman is currently the Artificial Intelligence Business lead at Microsoft Canada. She is an Artificial Intelligence enthusiast; passionate towards leveraging technology and making a positive impact for today’s society and generations to come.

Throughout the years, Iman has led several large-scale business programs aimed at building relationships and driving business with individuals and organizations in the world of Cloud, Data, and now Artificial Intelligence, with a strong Technical background. Much of her success can be attributed to her understanding of Microsoft’s business solutions, unique value proposition, and her ‘customer-first’ mindset. Iman has many years of International experience in the ‘Cloud and Hosting’ business and has been recognized as a Cloud expert in the Gulf region.

As a lifelong and avid learner, Iman has completed her Masters in International Business Management, MBA and a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering with a major in Software Development

JODIE LOBANA

RESEARCHER IN GOVERNANCE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, DOCTORAL CANDIDATE

DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University

Governance of AI

Jodie Lobana is a researcher in the Governance of Artificial Intelligence arena. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the DeGroote School of Business. Jodie lectures and publishes on Artificial Intelligence, and other emerging technologies related issues, and runs a LinkedIn group titled “Governance of Artificial Intelligence” - https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12187486/

Jodie also serves as an Adjunct Faculty Member at York University where she teaches Governance of Information Technology since 2011. Previously, she has also taught "Accounting Information Systems" at the University of Waterloo. Further, Jodie has taught a soft Leadership course at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).
Jodie is currently an Advisory Board Member of the McMaster Artificial Intelligence Society (MacAI Society). She also serves as a Board Member with the International Internal Audit Standards Board (IIASB), and OECM. She has previously served on the Boards of University of Waterloo's UWCISA Institute, and the Institute of Internal Auditors Canada (IIAC), as well as on the McMaster University’s IT Strategy Steering Committee and CPA Canada's IMTAC technology advisory committee. She has also been a member of the Liaison Committee between CPA Canada and IIA Canada and initiated the formation of memorandum of understanding between these two prestigious institutes. Jodie has also served in the past as the Audit Committee Member for Compliance Audit Committees of the City of Brampton and Dufferin-Peel Catholic School Board. Jodie has more than 20 years of work experience in Governance and Enterprise Risk Management, Internal & External Audit, and Accounting & Finance arenas. She has been serving as the Managing Director of Lobana Consulting Group Inc. since 2005.

Jodie has provided services to more than 50 national and multi-national organizations in North America. Further, she has traveled to 40 countries and worked in 7 countries.

Jodie has been awarded two degrees from the University of Waterloo - Bachelor of Arts (Honours), and Master of Accounting. Jodie holds many professional designations including Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA from Canada), Certified Public Accountant (from USA), Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Information Systems Auditor and Project Management Professional.

Jodie is the winner of the prestigious "2013 Award of Distinction" awarded by CPA Ontario to recognize CPAs who have made an early impact (under 40 category) through leadership and achievement in their professional, community, and/or personal lives.

WEMBA OPOTA

DATA & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SOLUTIONS STRATEGIST

Microsoft

Using AI to amplify human ingenuity

Wemba is passionate about innovation and likes to explore new possibilities at the blurring frontier of technology and business.
For about 20 years, he has been working with organizations from various industries around the world, helping them to reimagine and transform their business models, reach their digital aspirations and capitalize on relevant business disruptions and leading technologies.

He sits on the advisory board of the Master of Management in Analytics at McGill and is very active in the Canada Startup ecosystem as an advisor in incubators, a coach and a mentor.
He actively participates in the Microsoft AI plan for Canada, designing and implementing strategies to help close skills gap between available AI talent and the market demand.
Wemba has degrees in Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence and Business Administration from McGill University, HEC, and University of Bourgogne.

SIMONA GANDRABUR

LEAD AI STRATEGY, WEALTH MANAGEMENT

National Bank of Canada

The AI Transformation : Challenges and Opportunities of Introducing AI in Large Enterprises

Simona Gandrabur has been working in the general field of AI for close to 20 years, most notably in areas related to processing of human languages – such as automatic speech recognition, natural language understanding, machine translation and conversational reasoning. Her experience ranges from many years in research, in the development of smart assistant applications, to defining strategy of AI-based offers. She is currently the head of AI strategy within the Wealth Management division of the National Bank of Canada.

AMANDA HOLDEN

NATIONAL EXECUTIVE, FRAUD & SECURITY INTELLIGENCE

SAS

AI in security

Amanda is a technology, fraud and operations leader with 25+ years experience in financial services and a focus on data, analytics and operational excellence. Amanda is a proven leader and facilitator of business-technology strategies and partnerships. In her current role as a National Executive for Fraud & Security Intelligence for SAS, Amanda is responsible for driving business development and go to market strategies for SAS Fraud and AML products and services. As a leader and evangelist, Amanda is focused on finding solutions to customers’ financial crimes, loss and AML problems. She is passionate about data & analytics and the role they play in reducing financial crimes in Canada. Amanda is the Executive Sponsor for the SAS Women in Analytics Network and a longtime supporter of empowering girls and women in STEM programs. She is a mother of one son and is proud to call herself a “geek” - rarely far from the many tools, technologies and gadgets that she enjoys in life and in business.

JEFF CATES

CEO AND PRESIDENT

Achievers

His journey in AI

Jeff Cates serves as the CEO and President of Achievers. He was formerly the CEO and President of Intuit Canada, a software development company that
produces premier brands such as TurboTax, QuickBooks and Mint. Jeff’s passion for creating environments where employees can do the best work of their
lives has helped Intuit Canada become a top “Great Place to Work” in Canada. During his tenure, the company was also recognized as a top employer for
women and millennials leading in diversity initiatives. Cates joined Intuit in 2011, with a background that includes innovative marketing, product leadership and entrepreneurship. Previously, Cates worked at Apple Canada leading their enterprise business, and Hewlett Packard as vice presidentof their consumer division. He earned an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McMaster
University. Testament to his passion for the start-up industry and advocacy efforts for entrepreneurialism, he currently holds a role on the board of Start-Up Canada.
Jeff also sits on the board of CUSO, a not-for-profit organization focused on midwifery and economic development in third world countries.

MICHAEL TANG

PARTNER AND HEAD OF GLOBAL DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES

Deloitte

Canada’s AI Imperatives – The Impact on Industry

Michael Tang leads Deloitte’s Global Financial Services Digital Transformation practice. In this role, he works with clients on strategy & services related to Digital Transformation, FinTech, Open Banking, Cloud and Ecosystem Innovation in financial services.

Michael works with senior executives on business strategy to technology and has particular expertise in the alignment of business & IT, future of banking strategy, business transformation and the blending of innovation and creativity. Michael is also the Lead Client Executive and Lead Alliance Partner for Google Canada and the Global Financial Services relationship with Google Cloud and Marketing Platforms.

Previously Michael was the Chief Strategy Officer and led the Financial Services Industry Practice for Deloitte New Zealand; during that time he was appointed as the Asia Pacific Global Financial Services Consulting Leader, and also was the managing partner of the Enterprise Risk Advisory Practice.

BRIAN LENAHAN

CEO

Aquitaine Innovation Advisors

AI career in transitions

Brian Lenahan is a former executive in a Top 10 North American bank, a graduate of MIT's AI Strategy program, the Author-in-Residence of the Toronto-based, 3,500 member AIGeeks meetup community and a recognized keynote speaker. He is the author of the Amazon best-selling "Artificial Intelligence: Foundations for Business Leaders and Consultants", as well as "Digital Coach: Coaching in the Era of Artificial Intelligence", and "Artificial Intelligence: Transitions - How to Prepare For a Career in a World Where AI is Everywhere".

ZAKARIYA M

FOUNDER & MANAGING TECHNICAL PARTNER

ZL Technovation

Healthcare in AI

Zack started ZL Technovation in order to disrupt healthcare in a positive way. He is a digital health entrepreneur and leader who has over 6+ years of vast experience in information technology management consulting, and providing technological implementation solutions in healthcare, banking and academic research.
He has worked with a leading Canadian hospital, a diverse range of healthcare teams to solve some of their biggest challenges. He has received national media coverage for his impactful work with Crohn’s and Colitis Canada where he created a patient focused application which was endorsed by the Mayor of Calgary in July 2015.
Zack believes in creating value for patients by unearthing solutions that utilize design thinking practices, optimizing patient outcomes and solving the messy bedside patient-physican dilemma. He is an undeniable force in the digital healthcare space and will stop at nothing to get you the best results! He is a graduate from McMaster University with a Bachelor's of Health Studies and a Certified Clinical Researcher. He is also an active participant in entrepreneur mentorship programs in the Hamilton to Toronto Corridor.

MANAF ZARGOUSH

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, HEALTH POLICY & MANAGEMENT

DeGroote School of Business

AI in aging

Manaf Zargoush is an assistant professor of Health Policy and Management at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University. He earned his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Jundi Shapoor (Chamran) University in Iran, an M.Sc. in Socio-Economic Systems Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Iran, an M.Phil. and a Ph.D. in Decision Science and Statistics from ESSEC Business School in France, and a Ph.D. in Healthcare Operations and Information Management from McGill University in Canada. His research interests and expertise are in healthcare analytics (descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive) using various analytical approaches such as Machine Learning and Optimization.
His current research projects are a) chronic disease management (particularly hypertension and diabetes control), and b) aging research (particularly predicting functional loss and recovery among older adults and management of Alternate Level of Care (ALC) among older adults in Canada).

MAHMOOD QASMI

FOUNDER

transioTEK

Mahmood has a Master in Applied Science from McMaster University and also 18+ years of progressive experience in product development, project management and consulting and 10+ years of demonstrated practice in Canadian R&D tax law and legislative interpretation. He has made substantial contributions in leading, engaging, training and coaching engineering teams. He also has extensive experience in stakeholder management including executive, technical and government personnel.

ALI EL-SHAYEB

CO-FOUNDER & CEO

nugget.ai

Machine Learning Strategies for Stock Predictions

Ali is a self-taught developer who has been writing code and building products since 2012. He is a serial hackathon award winner, with 7 awards competing across North America building Machine Learning models, NLP APIs, and various cloud-based applications. Out of university, he sold an educational technology product called Prep - motivated learning. In 2019, he was awarded one of Canada's Top 30 Under 30 Developers by Evoke, and today, he leads nugget.ai as Co-Founder and CEO, building the largest skills database for the future of work.

ABUBAKER KHALIFA

CRITICAL CARE PHYSICIAN

Joseph Brant Hospital/NXT Biomedical Incubator

Panel Speaker - AI in Startup

Abubaker Khalifa is a Critical Care Physician at Joseph Brant Hospital as well as William Osler Health System and an Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct) with McMaster University. He completed a biomedical innovation and biodesign fellowship at Stanford University. Abubaker works with NXT Biomedical Incubator in Irvine, California, recently funded with a multi-million USD fund to deliver innovative breakthrough medical technologies in largely unmet clinical need areas.

MARK MORREALE

ACADEMIC & INNOVATION LEAD, CANADA

SAS

Panel Speaker - AI in Startup

Mark Morreale is the National Lead for SAS Canada’s Academic & Innovation Programs. Currently, Mark’s role is to facilitate partnerships Academics, Industry, and the Innovation Sectors. With over 20 years of experience in the Canadian healthcare system, before joining SAS, Mark trained as an Epidemiologist and has worked in several Analytics positions for the Pharma Sector, Hospitals, and Government.

Mark is also a professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University, where he lectures on Clinical Decision Support, Health Care Performance, Quality and Health Research Methodologies. Examples of his research include: Evaluation of Care Maps, ER wait times, Patient Safety and Quality of Care.