James Burron

President and Co-Founder

CAASA

James co-founded CAASA in response to industry support for a Canadian alternatives association to serve all aspects including: hedge / alternative strategies; private lending; private real estate; private equity; plus emerging areas where Canada is a leader such as digital assets / blockchain and robo-advisors.

Prior to CAASA, James was the Chief Operating Officer of AIMA Canada where his team of three worked with 12 committees to produce 50-60 events per annum across Canada, organize 100+ committee meetings, and increase member numbers over his 7-year tenure from 66 to 164 corporate entities.

James also has experience in research and writing for the CAIA Association as well as serving on CAIA’s Exam Council and as a grader for the Level II portion of the exam.  He also had roles in institutional sales and FoHF structuring in Seoul, South Korea, as a Product Manager at ICICI Wealth Management, and an Investment Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities.  He graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BBA (Finance).

Kerem Kolcuoglu

Managing Partner

Penrose Partners

Kerem is an MBA and the Managing Partner of Penrose Partners, a blockchain-focused consulting firm advising startups, enterprises, governments and investors on navigating the blockchain and digital assets space.

Kerem is an advisor to the Canadian Technology Accelerators and to the Premier’s Office of FinTech for the Bermuda Government. He is also a Founding Board Member of the Bermuda Innovation & Technology Association (BITA) and a Founding Partner of the i3 Innovation Incubator in Bermuda.

Previously at PricewaterhouseCoopers and at MLG Blockchain, he has consulted multinational enterprises, governments and educational institutions on understanding and adopting blockchain technology. Bridging his experience in multiple industries, he has foreseen change and advised clients on navigating digital transformation in an age of disruption.

Koleya Karringten

Executive Director

Canadian Blockchain Consortium

A proud Albertan technology entrepreneur, advocate, and leader, Koleya Karringten has a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities of product commercialization, ecosystem building and fostering inclusion in the technology industry. As the co-founder and CEO of Absolute Combustion, she has spent over a decade successfully designing and developing ground-breaking cleantech solutions for multiple industry sectors, including aerospace and Oil & Gas. She is a driving force in Canada’s blockchain technology industry as the Executive Director of the Canadian Blockchain Consortium (CBC) and co-founder/board member of the Canadian Blockchain Association for Women (CBAW). In her leadership role at the CBC, she has merged her passions for technology and social good to bring together blockchain companies, corporate leaders and the government to build the country’s largest blockchain ecosystem organization. An influential public speaker, writer, and community volunteer, Koleya strongly believes that uniting diverse voices behind a common goal is the path to creating a fairer, more sustainable and prosperous nation. Koleya also shares her passion for supporting women in STEM through her volunteer role the Vice Chair of Elevate Aviation a Not for Profit organization dedicated to supporting the education and training of women to have technical careers in Aviation.

Fred Pye

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

3iQ Digital Asset Management

Frederick Pye, Chairman and CEO: Fred kick-started his career as a precious metal and foreign exchange trader at Guardian Trust. In 1986, they were the first to list gold, silver, and platinum certificates on the Montreal Stock Exchange. Fred later joined Fidelity Investments, where he was part of a team that saw its assets rise from 85 million to over 7.5 billion. Through the launch of creative and exotic investment products, Fred started his own firm, which worked diligently with Canadian regulatory bodies to establish the first mutual fund in Canada that was allowed to take short positions. Finally, as founder and CEO of 3iQ, he and his team worked cooperatively with the Ontario Securities Commission for the last 4 and a half years to launch the first regulated Bitcoin fund in North America. In a landmark victory, 3iQ was given the green light by the regulator to file a prospectus and apply to list “The Bitcoin Fund” on a Canadian stock exchange. 3iQ is now Canada’s largest digital asset investment fund manager with more than C$3.5 billion in assets under management.

Mr. Pye obtained a master’s in business administration from Concordia University and is a member of the Board of the Anglican Funds and the West Island Youth Residence.

Giles Anderson

Director, Sales and Relationship Management

Fidelity Clearing Canada ULC

Joining FCC in 2018, Giles brings more than 20 years of experience in financial technology and operations across both the buy and sell sides of the industry. He began his career in the retail operations of a major Canadian bank-owned firm which provided him with a deep level of understanding of FCC’s clients’ needs and how best to service them. Prior to joining FCC, Giles was based in Toronto, London, and New York working for some of the industry’s most respected technology providers in sales leadership roles. He has a proven track record working with both small and large clients to deliver enterprise projects which enable clients to focus on their core differentiators and enjoy reduced risks and costs. He successfully completed the Canadian Securities Course and the Conduct and Practices Handbook courses with the Canadian Securities Institute.

George Djuric

Senior Consultant, Blockchain & Cryptoassets

KPMG

George is a Senior Consultant at KPMG’s Technology Risk Consulting practice in Toronto, working directly with the cryptoasset and enterprise blockchain team. He has a background in and deep understanding of Metaverse trends, blockchain networks, digital assets, tokenization strategies and metaverse platforms.

• George has been directly involved in assignments related to the Metaverse, cryptocurrencies, digital securities, and enterprise blockchain solutions.
• He has delivered several education sessions on various subject matters such as, but not limited to: blockchain, digital securities, NFTs, metaverse trends, digital asset regulatory trends, decentralized finance, smart contracts and the Ethereum network.
• He has a deep passion and understanding of the web3 ecosystem and spends a lot of his spare time researching all the latest trends with respect to digital assets, decentralized finance and the metaverse.
• Prior to entering the web3 space, George advised institutional real estate firms on various portfolio strategies.

Lisa Durnford

Senior Manager of Regulatory R&D

Wealthsimple Crypto

Lisa is the Senior Manager of Regulatory R&D for Wealthsimple Crypto, working closely with our crypto product teams to ensure compliance is designed into new products early on. Prior to Wealthsimple, Lisa was the Regulatory Compliance Management Lead for BMO Capital Markets’ AML Office. She’s a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School and University of Western Ontario, and a founding board member of Gradient Spaces, a non-profit advocating for 2SLGBTQA+ inclusion and representation in the tech sector. Lisa loves talking about startups, financial inclusion, and penguins.

Russell Starr

Executive Chairman & CEO

Valour

As Executive Chairman & CEO of Valour, Russell Starr believes that all investors should have access to industry-leading digital assets and the future of finance. Russell is an entrepreneur, and financier with deep capital markets and industry expertise, and an advocate for decentralized finance and the use of cryptocurrencies. Russell leads Valour’s strategy to bridge the gap between traditional capital markets, digital assets and Web3 protocols, via regulated equity exchanges and innovative products. He is also a co-founder and part owner of Echelon Wealth Partners, a large Canadian investment dealer, and CEO of Trillium Gold. After spending many years in Toronto’s financial center of Bay Street, Russell has held executive positions and board roles with numerous TSX- and TSXV-listed companies.

Shaun Cumby

Chief Executive Officer & Chief Investment Officer

Arxnovum Investments Inc.

Shaun Cumby has worked in trading and portfolio management for over 25 years across many asset classes, including asset-backed securities, mortgage-backed securities, credit default swaps, bank loans and equities and related derivatives. Prior to forming the Arxnovum Investments Inc, Mr. Cumby was Chief Investment Officer of 3iQ Corp., where he was instrumental in the creation and launch of the first publicly-traded bitcoin investment fund in Canada. Prior thereto, Mr. Cumby served as the Director of Futures Trading for Resolve Asset Management, traded with GMP Investment Management, and was Chief Risk Officer of Dundee Bank of Canada. Previously he was co-head of the TD Securities corporate loan portfolio. Mr. Cumby earned a Masters’ in Business Administration from the University of Toronto.

Didier Lavallee

CEO

Tetra Trust Company

Didier brings over 16 years of capital markets and asset servicing experience with in depth knowledge of equities and foreign exchange to Tetra. Prior to becoming CEO of Tetra, Didier held various leadership positions at the Royal Bank of Canada including Head of Canadian Custody Product for RBC Investor and Treasury Services. Before that, Didier also ran RBC I&TS North American FX Sales Trading team, FX Product and held various roles in capital markets with RBC, UBS and Genuity. Didier holds a B.A. in Finance and Administrative Studies from Western University.

Andrew Kiguel

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

Tokens

Andrew Kiguel is the co-founder and CEO of Tokens.com, a publicly listed company that invests in Metaverse real estate, DeFi and NFT related digital assets. Andrew also co-founded and is the former CEO of Hut 8 Mining, one of the largest publicly listed bitcoin miners in the world.

Prior to that, Andrew spent 20 years as an investment banker with a focus on technology and real estate. Andrew is an accomplished executive with leadership experience in capital markets, corporate governance and entrepreneurship.

Kirk Emery

Executive Vice-President of Legal & Business Development

Figment

At Figment, Kirk collaborates with customers on staking solutions and leads corporate law initiatives. He has formed agreements with dozens of institutional customers, led legal aspects of Figment’s Series A-C financings, and created bespoke legal materials from scratch for matters involving novel technologies.

Before joining Figment, Kirk was a business lawyer at a national law firm in Toronto where his practice focused on private equity transactions (M&A and VC) of technology companies, technology supply transactions (e.g., SaaS), board governance, and commercial advisory.

Kirk has degrees in common law and civil law from McGill University and is a member of the bars of Ontario and New York. Kirk enjoys shredding gnarly trails on his mountain bike.

Freddie Allen

Institutional Sales, Trading, & Prime

Coinbase

Freddie Allen is an Institutional Sales Specialist at Coinbase. Freddie focuses on partnering with large financial institutions and institutional investors across Coinbase Cloud’s suite of web3 products, including staking and liquid staking.

Freddie joined Coinbase through the January 2021 acquisition of staking infrastructure platform, Bison Trails. Freddie began working in the crypto industry in early 2018 for Republic, a crypto focused investment platform and advisory business spun-off from AngelList. Previously, Freddie worked in traditional financial services across technology merchant banking, equity research, and asset management.

Jonathan Han

Managing Director

VirgoCX Wealth

Jonathan Han is the Managing Director at VirgoCX Wealth, one of the leading Crypto OTC service providers in Canada. Jonathan is also a founding member of VirgoCX and was responsible for the scaling of Virgo’s retail platform and then expanding its OTC services internationally. Prior to Virgo, Jonathan worked in commodity trading and helped to scale high-growth tech start-ups in North America, Asia, and Europe. Jonathan obtained a Dual Master’s Degree from Ivey Business School and Rotterdam School of Management.

Zachary Friedman

Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer

GDA Group

Zachary Friedman is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor building at the intersections of finance, blockchain, art, and technology.

Zachary currently sits as the COO of Global Digital Assets (GDA), a leading blockchain-focused investment bank, and CSO of Secure Digital Markets (SDM), a leading global digital asset brokerage.

Through these roles, Zachary has worked to advise and support world-leading institutions, family offices, governments, and Fortune 500 companies alike.

Zachary is also a founder of Metaverse Group, the world’s first virtual real estate company, NFT Bazl, a leading luxury NFT art gallery, and has worked on the world’s first listed blockchain-focused SPAC ($BMAQU).

Zachary, who is extremely passionate about entrepreneurship, is an active blockchain mentor at Founders Fund, previously launched his own tech accelerator (W5), and co-produced Elevate Toronto, Canada’s largest technology conference.