Hear directly from the experts about the disruptive technologies that are reshaping business, government, and society at unprecedented speeds.
Industry luminaries
Armughan Ahmad
CEO and President, Appen
As Chief Executive Officer and President, Armughan Ahmad leads Appen’s mission to enable our customers to deploy world-class AI solutions. Ahmad is a proven business executive with over 25 years of experience is scaling multi-billion dollar businesses and building strong teams.
Most recently Ahmad served as the President and Managing partner of Digital at KPMG, a global leader in delivering innovative digital transformation services across industry sectors. Before that he was the Senior Vice President & General Manager at (NYSE:Dell), where he led the company’s Cloud, HPC and Solutions business. He oversaw product, engineering, sales, marketing, services and alliances, growing Dell’s business to multi-billions in revenue. Ahmad played a vital role in integrating Dell’s acquisition of EMC data storage, architecting multiple successful multi-cloud platforms, including Microsoft, VMWare, and RedHat. Prior to Dell, Ahmad held global executive positions at Hewlett Packard (HP) through the acquisition of 3Com/H3C (NYSE:3COM) a networking and security business, he has held operating roles with tech companies backed by private equity.
Ahmad serves on the board of Future Skills Center innovating the future of work with human and machine collaboration. He also serves on the international advisory and school of engineering boards of University of Waterloo. As one of the founding members, Ahmad is a passionate promoter of diversity accelerator at CILAR, mental health awareness and ESG social impact programs.
Sam Altman
CEO, OpenAI
Sam Altman is the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, the AI research and deployment company behind ChatGPT and DALL·E. Sam was president of the early-stage startup accelerator Y Combinator from 2014 to 2019.
In 2015, Altman co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit research lab with the mission to build general-purpose artificial intelligence that benefits all humanity. The company remains governed by the nonprofit and its original charter today.
Armen Bakirtzian
CEO and Co-Founder, Intellijoint Surgical
Armen Bakirtzian leads increased market adoption and team growth, manages strategic partnerships, investor and government relations, and fundraising. He is passionate about growing the Canadian medtech industry and seeing patients around the world benefit from Canadian innovation. He spearheaded the creation of MIX--Canada’s first industry-led innovative hub dedicated to helping medtech companies scale within Canada. Bakirtzian holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Waterloo, and a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto.
Erin Chapple
Corporate Vice President, Azure Core Product and Design, Microsoft
Erin Chapple is Corporate Vice President Azure Core Product and Design, delivering infrastructure offerings that power the world’s workloads. Spanning from general purpose, to workload-optimized, to SaaS, the combination of compute, storage, networking, and management services delivers customer choice and flexibility in current and future application hosting needs.
In addition, Erin leads planning across all of Azure. She's committed to building world-class organizations, supporting women in technology, other communities, and building the next generation of business leaders. Bringing these passions together, Erin sponsors the Cloud and AI Management Excellence Community and co-sponsors the Women at Microsoft employee resource group.
Previously Erin was the Corporate Vice President of the Azure team responsible for technology at the foundation of all Windows-based products. She joined Microsoft in 1998 as a Program Manager for Small Business Server. Since then, she's contributed to more than 15 operating system releases in various Program Manager leadership positions.
Dr. Michael Chui
Partner, McKinsey Global Institute (MGI)
Dr. Michael Chui is a partner at the MGI, McKinsey's business and economics research arm. He leads research on the impact of disruptive technologies and innovation on business, the economy, and society. Chui has led McKinsey research in such areas as data and analytics, social and collaboration technologies, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, robotics and automation, and biological technologies.
Chui is a global co-sponsor of the Asians at McKinsey affinity network and serves on the internal advisory council for the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility.
Prior to joining McKinsey, Chui served as the first chief information officer of the city of Bloomington, Indiana, where he re-architected the enterprise architecture using open source technologies and led a project that resulted in Bloomington becoming the first community in the world to offer both live and archived video streaming of public meetings on the Web.
Jennifer Edey
Senior Vice-President, Operational Services and Business Development, Bruce Power
Jennifer Edey is the Senior Vice President of Operational Services and Business Development at Bruce Power. She oversees the operation of key services that directly support the safe operation of Bruce Power’s nuclear fleet. These services include Information Technology and Digital Transformation, the operations and maintenance of all facilities and infrastructure, the document management system for Bruce Power, Radiological Waste Management and Health Physics. She also leads Emergency and Protective Services which consists of Nuclear Security, Fire Response and Prevention, and Emergency Management.
She has most recently added Business Development to her portfolio where she oversees isotope development, new nuclear initiatives and innovative technology and project opportunities to support our Net Zero Strategy.
Jennifer started her career with Suncor in Calgary where she was at the leading edge of renewable energy development in Canada. She developed wind farms across Canada and eventually co-ran a successful wind development company in Ontario.
She studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo and completed her Executive MBA through Queens University while working for Suncor in Calgary.
Todd Deaville
Vice President, Factory of the Future, Corporate R&D Magna International Inc.
Todd Deaville has served as Vice President, Factory of the Future since 2022. In this role he leads Magna’s’ Corporate R&D teams with responsibility to identify, develop, and enable scale of advanced manufacturing technologies within Magna operations. Previously, Todd served as Director, Technology Innovation and Outreach for Magna R&D.
Todd has worked for Magna in the automotive industry for 26 years, beginning with an apprenticeship in Mold Engineering and plastics molding. This was followed by various engineering, customer liaison and product development roles in plastics/composites and paint, automotive interiors, lighting, and solar power systems. He received his Masters of Mechanical Engineering Degree from the University of Toronto in 2010, based on the development of a novel automotive acoustics actuator.
Charles Eagan
CTO, BlackBerry Ltd.
Appointed in June 2018, Charles Eagan is the Chief Technology Officer for BlackBerry. In this role, Eagan is responsible for the advancement of new technologies, driving innovation within emerging markets and advancing security capabilities that leverage AI and Machine Learning. He is responsible for technology Research with an emphasis on helping drive Cyber Security Strategy in the ever expanding connected IoT market.
Sarah Goldfeder
Director, Government Relations and Corporate Affairs, General Motors of Canada
Sarah Goldfeder is a government relations and strategic policy professional with experience in both government and private sectors. She joined General Motors Canada in March 2021, and in June 2023 stepped into the leadership role for public policy in Canada.
Over the last fifteen years, Sarah has worked on issues pertaining to the North American trilateral relationship. She has been engaged with the U.S. and Canadian governments to map out a strategic vision for North America as a critical component of foreign and economic policy for the region.
Before joining General Motors, Sarah was part of an elite team of principals at Earnscliffe Strategies, one of the oldest consulting firms in Ottawa. From 2012-2015, she was special assistant to two U.S. Ambassadors to Canada. Prior to her arrival in Ottawa, Sarah served in Mexico and Southeast Asia as a U.S. diplomat.
Sarah has made Ottawa her home, but still considers herself primarily from the American West, having studied at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, and Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Dr. Chisu Kim
Director of Research and Strategy, Hydro-Québec
Dr. Chisu Kim is a director of the Center of Excellence in Transportation Electrification and Energy Storage (CETEES) at Hydro-Québec, where she leads the development of next-generation battery technologies. She has been working on battery R&D projects at Hydro-Quebec since 2012 and was responsible for multiple research programs in collaboration with industrial partners and national laboratories.
She has over 25 years of experience in the battery field, with combined expertise in fundamental research and battery manufacturing. Prior to joining Hydro-Québec, she worked for the battery industry for 12 years, developing commercial lithium-ion batteries for various applications ranging from IT devices to electric vehicles. She obtained her Ph.D. in electrochemistry from Seoul National University in 2000.
Jodi Kovitz
CEO, Human Resources Professional Association
Jodi Kovitz is a visionary CEO, global brand builder, and passionate connector of people. As the CEO of the Human Resources Professional Association (HRPA), she brings a wealth of experience and a pioneering spirit to her leadership.
Kovitz founded #movethedial, a movement promoting the growth and equitable participation of all women in tech, impacting over 60,000 people worldwide. Her previous roles include leading growth at Vetster, serving as CEO of Peerscale, and practicing as a family law lawyer and legal business development strategist.
Passionate about equity, innovation, and the future of work, Kovitz has been featured in Forbes Women and recognized as one of Canada's 25 Women of Influence and one of WXN’s Canada’s 100 most powerful women.
Kovitz holds an HBA from Ivey Business School, an LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School and an LLD from the University of Calgary. She is also the author of Go Out of Your Way, a book about the power of genuine connections.
Claudette McGowan
CEO, Protexxa
Claudette McGowan is currently the Chief Executive Officer for Protexxa, a Canadian-based cybersecurity software and services company, and has more than 20 years of success leading digital transformations, optimizing infrastructure and designing new approaches that improve service and cybersecurity experiences.
Prior to Protexxa, 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. At BMO, Claudette served as the Chief Information Officer, Enterprise Technology Employee Experience, and at TD she was the Global Executive Officer for Protect Fusion and Cyber Experience.
In 2022, McGowan received the DMZ Women of the Year Award and NACO named her as a Nation Builder of the Year in Canada.
Dave McKay
President and CEO, RBC
As President and CEO of RBC, Dave McKay is reimagining the future of banking, helping RBC’s clients thrive and communities prosper.
Since joining the bank as a co-op student in computer programming, McKay has been building innovation into the company’s DNA. An unwavering champion of big ideas and creativity, he continues to drive investments in new technologies and business models to bring the physical and digital worlds together and provide best-in-class digital experiences for RBC clients.
In his home market, McKay is a passionate advocate for Canada’s future prosperity and preparing youth for the future of work through the support and development of RBC Future Launch, a 10-year, $500 million commitment to help young people build the skills required to succeed in a changing world.
Tomi Poutanen
CEO and Co-Founder, Signal 1
Tomi Poutanen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Signal 1. Before Signal 1, Poutanen co-founded Layer 6 which was acquired by TD Bank where he served as the Chief AI Officer. Poutanen has had previous exits to Microsoft and Yahoo!. Poutanen holds an MSc in Computer Engineering and an MBA from University of Toronto, and is a co-founder of Vector Institute for AI.
Tracy Primeau
Corporate Director, OPG and WiN Canada
Founder and Principal, Agile Bear
Tracy Primeau is one of the few women to become a CNSC licensed operator at Bruce Power and was the first to do so at Bruce A. She is the only woman to ever work her way up to Shift Manager from the shop floor where she started as a nuclear operator in training in 1990 at Pickering. She worked shift for most of her career and before retiring in 2021 led multiple teams in operations and maintenance. She is a current member of the Women in Nuclear Canada Board, the United College Board of Governors and the Ontario Power Generation Board. She is also the Founder and Principal of Agile Bear.
She is a proud member of the Nipissing First Nation and strives to use the Seven Grandfather Teachings in her leadership.
Jennifer Smith
Engineering Director, Google Core Labs and Co-Site Lead, Google Waterloo
As Director of Engineering within Google Core Labs organization, Jennifer is on a mission to build helpful user experiences in the dynamic landscape of generative media. Jennifer also serves a key role as one of Google Waterloo’s office site leads, responsible for growing Google’s engineering presence with a strong, diverse set of Googlers that deliver impact on all of Google's efforts.
Prior to her current role, Jennifer was Director of Product within Google Cloud, helping to drive customers’ success on Cloud platforms.
Jennifer is an engaging executive with deep expertise in bringing products and services to market. Her career has spanned a variety of technologies including satellite communications, image processing, laser projection, AdTech and Enterprise Cloud software. Jennifer’s work across these fast-developing fields has served both the private and public sector in markets including media, entertainment, financial services, retail and consumer tech.
Jennifer is also passionate about STEM fields and advocating for STEM career choices among young women. She was named one of the Top 40 Under 40 in Waterloo Region for her efforts to create social change through business and technology and her work promoting engineering and tech careers for young women.
Kevin Strain
President and CEO, Sun Life
Kevin D. Strain is President & Chief Executive Officer of Sun Life and a member of the company’s Board of Directors.
Strain joined Sun Life in 2002 and has since held several senior roles, including Vice-President of Investor Relations for Sun Life’s Corporate Office, and Senior Vice-President of Sun Life’s Individual Insurance and Investments division in Canada.
In 2012, Strain assumed the role of President, Sun Life Asia where he was responsible for Sun Life’s interests in Asia, including identifying opportunities for growth in the region and managing the company’s relationships with its partners.
In 2017, Strain was appointed Chief Financial Officer, responsible for Sun Life’s worldwide Finance, Taxation, Capital and Investor Relations, Enterprise Services and Corporate Development business groups.
Strain is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Master of Accounting degree from the University of Waterloo in Canada. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, the University of Waterloo Board of Governors and is a member of the Asia Business Leaders Advisory Council.
Kim Watson
President & Managing Director, Wipro Canada
Kim Watson is the President and Managing Director for Wipro Canada, where she focuses on business growth, localization, brand building, and transformational client engagements in key Canadian sectors. With over 30 years of experience in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) field, Kim has held various leadership roles, including at IBM Canada, where she was Vice President and General Manager for the Federal Market. Her career at IBM spanned over two decades, during which she held leadership positions in IBM Global Services and IBM Software divisions, and even served as Vice President, Client Advocacy in the Office of the Chairman, CEO, and President. Kim also spent five years as the Vice President of Engineering and Program Delivery at Bell Business Markets.
Kim is renowned for her energetic and motivating leadership style, known to construct creative, collaborative, and innovative approaches for business growth and program delivery. She possesses a strategic mindset, a collaborative attitude, and a strong passion for achieving goals.
Outside of work, Kim enjoys spending quality time with her partner Rich, her son Branden, daughter-in-law Raluca, and their three dogs, Ellie, Dixie, and Daisy.
Bryan Webb
President, Clearpath Robotics
Bryan currently serves as President of Clearpath Robotics and is a board member of Mycionics Inc. A leader in entrepreneurial organizations since 2005, Bryan has a long history of contributing to the bottom line of growth businesses. Bryan has expertise in operations, finance, engineering and strategic business leadership.
He co-founded Clearpath Robotics Inc. in 2009. His initial focus was electrical design and he later turned to managing the company's supply chain, manufacturing, and finance functions.
In 2015, Bryan co-founded OTTO Motors. Bryan led the manufacturing and professional services for OTTO Motors and has sat on the board for Clearpath Robotics Inc. for several years.
Bryan has expertise in fundraising and in many areas related to growing and managing start-ups. He has experience leading teams, developing customer and supplier relationships, organizing people and processes, defining the company's strategy and making challenging decisions with limited information.
John Weigelt
Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft Canada
John Weigelt leads Microsoft Canada’s strategic policy and technology efforts. He helps individuals and organizations across Canada innovate with technology while avoiding the unintended consequences that might arise.
Weigelt has contributed to many technological efforts that established the foundation for the electronic services we take for granted today and he continues to lead efforts to evolve technology standards and policy. His extensive experience in technology, business and policy provides him with a unique perspective of our technology enabled economy.
Leading experts
Dr. Joël Blit
Chair, Council on Innovation Policy
Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Dr. Joël Blit's main research interests are in the economics of innovation and innovation policy. He studies, among other things, the diffusion of disruptive technologies and their impact on productivity and jobs.
Blit regularly advises policymakers on innovation policy. As part of an expert roundtable, he advised the Minister of Foreign Affairs on Canada’s optimal position on intellectual property for USMCA trade negotiations. On the topic of automation and the future of work, he has briefed the G7 Representatives and has been an invited speaker at a number of venues including the OECD Global Forum on Productivity.
Prior to joining Waterloo, Blit was an Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the George Washington University, and a business consultant to financial services firms in Asia, Australia, and North America. His consulting engagements included reorganizing the activities of a major bank and formulating the strategy for a $US 100M startup.
Dr. Vivek Goel
President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Waterloo
Dr. Vivek Goel is the University of Waterloo's President and Vice-Chancellor. He has held a number of senior leadership roles at the University of Toronto including as Vice-President and Provost and most recently as Vice-President Research and Innovation.
He served as founding President and CEO of Public Health Ontario from 2008 until 2014 and also as a founding scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). Goel has served as Chief Academic Strategist with Coursera, a global platform that connects universities and learners with online courses.
Goel obtained his medical degree from McGill University and completed post-graduate medical training in Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. Goel obtained a master’s degree (MSc) in Community Health from U of T and a master’s degree (MS) in Biostatistics from Harvard University School of Public Health.
Dr. Jimmy Lin
Cheriton Chair, David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science
Co-director, Waterloo AI Institute
CTO, Primal
Dr. Jimmy Lin's area of research lies at the intersection between natural language processing and information retrieval. In addition to being one of the most cited artificial intelligence scholars in the world, he has been frequently and deeply engaged with both the private and public sectors throughout his career, including an extended sabbatical at Twitter and visiting positions at the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes for Health (NIH).
He presently serves as the Chief Technology Officer of Primal, a Waterloo-based AI company focused on creating meaning that computers can understand. Lin holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and is a fellow of the ACM.
Dr. Amir Khajepour
Director, Mechatronic Vehicle Systems (MVS) Lab
Canada Research Chair, Mechatronic Vehicle Systems
Amir Khajepour is a professor of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and the Director of the Mechatronic Vehicle Systems (MVS) Lab at the University of Waterloo. He held the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Mechatronic Vehicle Systems from 2008 to 2022 and the Senior NSERC/General Motors Industrial Research Chair in Holistic Vehicle Control from 2017 to 2022.
His work has led to the training of over 150 PhD and MASc students, filing of 30 patents, publication of 600 research papers, numerous technology transfers, and the establishment of several start-up companies. He has been recognized with the Engineering Medal from Professional Engineering Ontario and is a fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, the American Society of Mechanical Engineering, and the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering.
Dr. John McPhee
Professor and Canada Research Chair, Biomechatronics
Professor John McPhee is the Canada Research Chair in Biomechatronics at the University of Waterloo, Canada, which he joined in 1992. Prior to that, he held fellowships at Queen’s University, Canada, and the Université de Liège, Belgium.
He pioneered the use of linear graph theory to create real-time models and model-based controllers for dynamic systems, with applications ranging from autonomous vehicles to exoskeletons, rehabilitation robots, and sports engineering. His research algorithms form the core of the widely-used MapleSim modelling software, and his book is the recommended text for the Canadian professional engineering practice exam.
Dr. McPhee is a co-founder of 5 startup companies and 2 international journals, and a member of the Golf Digest Technical Panel. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the American and Canadian Societies of Mechanical Engineers, and the Engineering Institute of Canada. He has won 10 Best Paper Awards, the NSERC Synergy Award from the Governor-General of Canada, and the prestigious Gold Medal from the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers in 2023.
Dr. Bessma Momani
Professor, Political Science
Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Dr. Bessma Momani is Full Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and Governor on the board of the International Development Research Centre. She previously served as both Assistant and Associate Vice-President in the university’s Office of Research.
Dr. Momani has worked as a consultant to the International Monetary Fund, both in the communications office and the Independent Evaluation Office. She has also been a Visiting Scholar in Global Affairs Canada (GAC) in its International Assistance Research and Knowledge Division and served as an inaugural member of the National Security Transparency Advisory Group at Public Safety Canada. Dr. Momani has authored more than twelve books and 80 peer-reviewed academic articles and is also a frequent media and political analyst with editorials in The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, Time, the Washington Post, the National Post and the Toronto Star.
Dr. Michele Mosca
Co-Founder, Institute for Quantum Computing
CEO and Co-Founder, evolutionQ
Dr. Michele Mosca is one of the world’s leading authorities in quantum computing and associated cyber-risks. He started the University of Waterloo’s efforts in quantum computing in 1999, where he is a Full Professor of the Faculty of Mathematics with cross-appointments in Computer Science and Physics & Astronomy. He is co-founder of CryptoWorks21, a training program in quantum-safe cryptography. He also co-founded evolutionQ Inc. to provide services and products that enable organizations to evolve their quantum-vulnerable systems and practices to quantum-safe environments. He serves as Chair of the Board of Quantum Industry Canada.
Dr. Mosca has won numerous awards and honours throughout his career, including 2010 Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013), Fr. Norm Choate C.R., Lifetime Achievement Award (2017), and a Knighthood (Cavaliere) in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2018). He holds D. Phil from Oxford University focused on quantum computing algorithms.
Dr. Mark Weber
Eyton Director, Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business
Dr. Mark Weber is the Eyton Director of the Conrad School and Professor of Management and Organizations. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Waterloo, Weber served on faculty and taught courses on leadership, negotiations and organizational behavior to students at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, INSEAD and at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.
Weber's research focuses on leadership, cooperation, negotiations, decision-making, and trust. He consults extensively and has provided training to executives and professionals in the automotive, education, healthcare, pharmaceutical, broadcast media, entertainment, telecommunications, professional services, and financial services industries, and in government at all levels.
Dr. Alexander Wong
Co-Director, Vision and Image Processing Lab
Canada Research Chair, AI and Medical Imaging
Chief Scientist and Co-Founder, DarwinAI
Advisory Board Member, Waterloo.AI
Dr. Alexander Wong has published over 600 refereed journal and conference papers, as well as patents, in various fields such as computational imaging, artificial intelligence, computer vision, and multimedia systems. He has earned BASc, MASc and PhD degrees related to computer engineering and systems design engineering from the University of Waterloo, where he has also received numerous institutional awards, including three Outstanding Performance Awards as well as numerous “best paper” awards at various conferences.
In addition to his academic interests, Wong's work in generative synthesis has led to the founding of DarwinAI, a leading-edge AI company based in Waterloo, backed by $17.8 million in venture funding, that is focused on high-tech visual quality inspection.