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.

Sarah Morton

Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder

MeetAmi

Sarah is the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of MeetAmi (“MeetAmi”) Innovations Inc, a Vancouver-based Fintech company that has built AmiPRO™, the first Digital Asset investing platform in Canada. AmiPRO takes wealth management firms from learning to liquidity with the software tools for trade execution and account management, an ecosystem of vendors, and learning to navigate the world of Digital Assets. The soon to launch Digital Asset Shelf™, a curated listing of Digital Asset and tokenized investment opportunities can be accessed through the AmiPRO platform. MeetAmi empowers advisors to confidently invest in Digital Assets while navigating the Digital Asset world.

Sarah provides strategic leadership and vision to MeetAmi’s team, guiding them to the next level of growth as they take the lead in creating the only Digital Asset investing platform in Canada that will eventually be used worldwide. Sarah is driving the strategy of a bold vision, the first of it’s kind while integrating learning, consulting, product and vendor selection into a compliance and workflow engine to meet Canada’s regulatory requirements.

Sarah is a serial entrepreneur, starting six companies, serving on several boards and acting as an advisor for over eight organizations during the past 19 years. She started her first company in 2005, seeing the opportunity for companies to essentially “rent” their IT computer needs rather than spend large amounts of capital to run their own. This concept eventually became known as Cloud Computing and today is ubiquitous.

Prior to MeetAmi, Sarah was the Chief Strategy Officer for PowerBD Solutions, a Vancouver-based private company, supplying green, renewable power to next generation compute intensive technologies such as blockchain, crypto mining, AI, VR/AR and rendering.

Sarah is a mentor and constant inspiration to many. Her ability to think generationally and keep her cool meeting challenging deadlines keeps MeetAmi’s team focused and confidently driving forward.

Sarah is continuing to oversee the launch of the AmiPRO Digital Asset investing platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s an ambitious project in which she is thriving, having worked with her co-founder to build a stellar team with the capabilities, experience and ambition to execute on this vision.

Contact Sarah at sarah@meetami.ca .

Hashim Mitha

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

MeetAmi

Hashim is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of MeetAmi (“MeetAmi”) Innovations Inc., a Vancouver-based Fintech company that has built AmiPRO™, the first Digital Asset investing platform in Canada. AmiPRO takes wealth management firms from learning to liquidity with the software tools for trade execution and account management, an ecosystem of vendors, and learning to navigate the world of Digital Assets. The soon to launch Digital Asset Shelf™, a curated listing of Digital Asset and tokenized investment opportunities can be accessed through the AmiPRO platform. MeetAmi empowers advisors to confidently invest in Digital Assets while navigating the Digital Asset world.

Hashim is a bold visionary who is leading the expert team at MeetAmi to launch the first-ever Digital Asset investing platform in Canada, for wealth management advisors and firms. His authentic, strong leadership enables him to build a culture within organizations that lays a foundation for success. With AmiPRO, he is creating a platform of education, portfolio design tools, trade execution, and a reporting and compliance workflow engine that empowers advisors to invest in Digital Assets while meeting the regulatory requirements for proficiency, disclosure, suitability, and risk.

Throughout his career, Hashim has always had a passion for driving the adoption of new technologies and building effective teams to commercialize innovations. He knows how to restructure organizations for growth opportunities. In 2017 he led the turn-around of a premier Canadian provider of voice, data and media services which received the TSX Venture Top 50 Award as one of the strongest companies on the TSX Venture Exchange. Prior to that, he consolidated corporate learning organizations and created one of the largest education companies in the United Kingdom.

In 2017, Hashim started his journey into the world of Blockchain and Bitcoin learning about Cryptocurrencies, mining operations, liquidity pools, exchanges, custodial providers, investment challenges as well as understanding the regulatory landscape. In 2019, he established MeetAmi with his co-founder, Sarah Morton, to create a technology platform which gives advisors and firms the necessary education and tools to meet their clients’ growing demand for Digital Assets.

Hashim’s vision for the AmiPRO platform is to enable advisors to transact in Digital Assets on behalf of their clients, with a simple to use interface that provides tools and resources to comfortably navigate the world of Digital Assets. Investor demographics are changing and AmiPRO is poised to help firms meet the changing needs and interests of their clients. The AmiPRO interface, combined with how content is provided, will set new standards in Fintech and Regtech and helps to de-risk the process for investing in Digital Assets.

He holds a Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia.

Benjamin R. Arnold

Founder and CEO

Meraki Global Advisors

As the Founder & CEO of Meraki Global Advisors, Benjamin Arnold is responsible for running all facets of the business. The concept of Meraki Global Advisors was a direct result of Ben’s rebellious determination to deliver conflict-free outsourced trading services to asset managers with an overriding objective of excellence.

Mr. Arnold has over 15 years of experience in the hedge fund and financial services industry spanning across the globe. Previously, he spent three years at Fillmore Advisors (acquired by INTL FCStone) where he was instrumental in growing the outsourced trading desk. Prior to his move back to the United States, Ben was an Executive Director on the Equity and Equity Derivatives Sales-Trading desk at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong and Mumbai, India. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Ben was a Vice-President on the Equity and Equity Derivatives Sales-Trading desk at BNP Paribas in Mumbai.

Ben began his career as a hedge fund trader with roles at Intrepid Capital Management and Asian Century Quest Capital in New York. He graduated from American University’s Kogod School of Business with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance.

Keith Black

Managing Director & Content Strategy

CAIA Association

Keith Black has over thirty years of financial market experience, serving approximately half of that time as an academic and half as a trader and consultant to institutional investors. He currently serves as Managing Director of Content Strategy for the CAIA Association. During his most recent role at Ennis Knupp + Associates, Keith advised foundations, endowments and pension funds on their asset allocation and manager selection strategies in hedge funds, commodities, and managed futures. Prior experience includes commodities derivatives trading, stock options research and CBOE floor trading, and building quantitative stock selection models for mutual funds and hedge funds. Dr. Black previously served as an assistant professor and senior lecturer at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

He contributes regularly to The CFA Digest, and has published in The Journal of Wealth Management, The Journal of Trading, The Journal of Investing, and The Journal of Alternatives Investments, among others. He is the author of the book “Managing a Hedge Fund,” as well as co-author of the second, third, and fourth editions of the CAIA Level I and Level II curriculum. Dr. Black was named to the Institutional Investor magazine’s list of “Rising Stars of Hedge Funds” in 2010.

Dr. Black earned a BA from Whittier College, an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, and a PhD from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and was a member of the inaugural class of both CAIA and FDP members.

Austin Hubbell

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Consilium Crypto

Austin is the CEO and co-founder of Consilium Crypto (https://consiliumcrypto.ai/), a big data company developing institutional grade investment analytics and liquidity access tools for the digital asset markets, helping funds find alpha and place large orders efficiently in times of thin liquidity. With a background in software development and machine learning, Austin brings a skillset balanced between technology and business. He previously worked with a distributed team based in L.A./San Francisco to build predictive models for crime hotspotting in major US cities, before shifting to the world of Finance to build machine learning trading systems for currency markets.

Steve Hawkins

President and CEO

Horizons ETFs

Steve Hawkins is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Horizons ETFs (a member of the Mirae Asset Global Investments Group), where he is responsible for the day-to-day business and affairs of the firm. With more than 30 years of experience in the investment industry, Mr. Hawkins has been with Horizons ETFs for more than 13 years including as its CIO, prior to becoming CEO in 2015. Mr. Hawkins is partly responsible for the proliferation of ETFs in Canada, bringing many first-of-their-kind ETFs to market. He spearheaded the launch of the first family of actively managed ETFs in Canada, the world’s first marijuana ETF and more recently, the world’s first psychedelics ETF. As an innovative ETF and capital markets thought leader, he is frequently quoted in the news media, appears regularly on business television and is a globally sought-after speaker for his expertise on his three favourite topics: ETFs, derivatives and cannabis. He was recognized as CEO of the Year at the 2018 Wealth Professional Awards and is the past Chair of the Canadian ETF Association. Mr. Hawkins studied mathematics and philosophy at the University of Toronto and holds a Derivative Market Specialist (DMS) designation.

Paul Cappelli

Portfolio Manager

Galaxy Fund Management

Paul Cappelli is a Portfolio Manager at Galaxy Digital Asset Management. Prior to joining the firm, he was a Director of Fixed Income at State Street Global Advisors. Previously, he was a Director in High Yield at Oppenheimer. Paul has also held positions in Fixed Income Sales and Trading at Citigroup and Foreign Exchange at HSBC. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame.

Seth Ginns

Head of Liquid Investment

CoinFund

Seth is Head of Liquid Investments, Managing Partner, and a key member of the Venture Investment Committee. He has twenty years of Wall Street experience, and has been deeply involved in the crypto community since his angel investment in Coinbase in 2012.  He is also an angel in Chainalysis, participated in the Ethereum ICO in 2014, and loves traveling globally to developer events as a way to keep a finger on the pulse of the market.  His angel portfolio also includes Instacart and DoorDash, and many earlier stage, high growth startups.

Prior to CoinFund, Seth invested in public growth equities over 18 years at Jennison Associates. He holds a BA in Mathematics and South Asia Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, where he is an Overseer at the School of Nursing and Co-Chair of the Innovation Committee, and serves on the International Advisory Board of the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the School of Arts and Sciences.

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.

Mitchell Nicholson

Senior Consultant

KPMG

Mitchell is a Senior Consultant in KPMG’s Technology Risk Consulting practice, working primarily on its cryptoasset and enterprise blockchain initiatives. At KMPG, Mitchell helps lead educational workshops, vendor assessments of cryptoasset service providers, and its cryptoasset marketing strategies. Prior to joining the firm, Mitchell worked for 2.5 years as an Economist at the Bank of Canada. During this period, he conducted research on traditional payment methods, including cash and credit cards, as well as frontier technologies, like Bitcoin, stablecoins and central bank digital currency. In his personal time, Mitchell researches and invests actively in the cryptoasset space. He has published original research with Deribit Insights and given a podcast with On the Brink.

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.

Kunal Bhasin

Senior Manager

KPMG

Kunal is a Senior Manager with KPMG’s Risk Consulting practice with a focus on governance, risk and compliance for emerging technologies, specifically Blockchain, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Kunal possesses over 8 years of experience in the IT and business process, risk and control based services to clients in Financial Services (FS), Asset Management, Power & Utilities, Mining & Metals, Telecom, and Software Provider industries. He has led various IT risk and maturity assessments, SOX-404 audits, internal audits, third-party attestations and emerging technology design reviews, including blockchain and DLT. Kunal has also been actively engaged in conversations regarding the technology and functional risks in cryptoasset space and the regulatory framework in Canada to enable innovation by adequate management of these risks in crypto exchanges, brokerages, and custody providers. He has also supported these clients to establish, test and monitor the internal controls to safeguard entities’ and consumer’s assets. He is currently a member of the Standards Council of Canada committee for blockchain and distributed ledger standards (ISO/TC – 307).

Kunal continues to educate himself with the tools and skillsets required to enable secure adoption of blockchain and crypto. He is a Certified Bitcoin Professional (CBP), a Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator (CCI), an active member of the ISACA community and is proficient with CryptoCurrency Security Standard (CCSS), COSO, COBIT and ITIL standards.

Jason Zaluski

Head of Technology

Hut 8 Mining

Jason is an experienced technologist and strategist. He joins Hut 8 after building his own consulting company specializing in the operation of cryptocurrency mining facilities as well as providing blockchain infrastructure services. Jason has worked closely with numerous leading hardware providers, as well as preeminent organizations, analysts, and investors in the space. Prior to starting his own company, Jason was a founding member of a blockchain startup in Toronto, leading the initial product management, as well as the crypto mining community. Jason has a Bachelor in Computer Information Systems from Mount Royal University (Calgary, AB) and an MBA from Saint Mary’s University (Halifax, NS).

Jerome Dwight

President

Brane Capital

Jerome is a former Chief Executive Officer of Bank of New York Mellon Canada, part of the world’s largest custodian, and former Global Market Head for Royal Bank of Canada’s International Wealth Management, Corporate, and Institutional businesses, where he oversaw RBC’s rapid global expansion across Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

During the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, Jerome was part of an industry task force enlisted by the Government of Canada to develop financial services sector reforms. As an industry advisor to then-Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty, he co-led a Canadian delegation to Wall Street and worked with banking leaders and regulators on preventative measures to stabilize and instil public confidence in the Canadian financial sector. Throughout the crisis, Jerome also advised Canadian federal and provincial governments on public-private partnerships, economic stimulus, mortgage markets, and securitizations. He led the restructuring of the $32-billion asset-backed commercial paper class of securities, the largest of its kind in Canada, and played key roles in overseeing over $50 billion in public-private partnership stimulus funds, the $2-billion GM Canada bailout restructuring, and the $12-billion automotive sector stimulus program.

An experienced executive and entrepreneur, Jerome has a record of selecting high-potential markets, starting and acquiring businesses, and driving companies to sector leadership. He has completed strategic investments and exit transactions with global institutions including Barclays Bank, HSBC, RBC, CIBC, Quebecor, Sun Media, the Allegis Group, IBM, and Cox Enterprises. Jerome serves as special advisor Framework Venture Partners, one of Canada’s leading fintech venture investors and has also advised the Portland Private Equity Fund and the Michael Lee-Chin family office.

Jerome received an MBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business and holds Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Public Accountant (CA-CPA) designations. In 2020, he was recognized by the Canadian Lenders Association as one of the top 25 Lending Executives in Canada. Mr. Dwight also received the Award of Distinction conferred by the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Canada) and is a recipient of Canada’s Top 40 under 40.

Laurie Fuller

Venture Partner

Raiven Capital

Laurie Fuller is a Venture Partner, Strategic Advisor, Investor and Executive Coach. She is an accomplished leader who enjoys helping entrepreneurs scale by identifying growth capital, developing strategy and implementing operational models. She is skilled in working with entrepreneurs to hire, train, and manage diverse teams to achieve high performance. Currently, Laurie is a Venture Partner at Raiven Capital. Raiven Capital is a Canada-Silicon Valley Series A venture fund that concentrates on investments just before scaling begins. In a previous role in a Silicon Valley tech company, she was responsible for the development and implementation of operational models which enabled global revenue growth from $1.2B to $6.2B during her tenure. Her international work experience includes positions based in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. She brings a global perspective and builds strong partnerships that transform businesses. She has a Global Executive MBA from TRIUM (NYU/LSE/HEC); MA from Stanford University; and a BS in Decision Science.

Spencer Greene

General Partner

TSV Capital

TSVC is an early-stage venture firm that has seeded more than 150 companies over the last ten years, including notable successes like Zoom, Carta, Ginkgo Bioworks, and Lambda School.

Spencer Greene joined the firm in 2018 after more than 25 years as an entrepreneur, executive, advisor and investor in Silicon Valley technology companies. His investing interests include digital health and B2B SaaS companies.

Eleonore Jarry-Ferron

Principal

Brightspark Ventures

In addition to her role as Principal at Brightspark, Eleonore is very active in the tech community in Canada: she is the co-founder of Front Row Ventures, Canada’s first university-focused venture capital firm. Board member and advisor to Technovation, Founder Institute, and the Canadian Venture Capital Association. 2018 Connector of the Year, 2019 Canadian Women in Tech to follow. She holds a BBA and a graduate diploma from HEC Montréal (awarded Lieutenant Governor of Québec medal).

Prior to joining Brightspark, Éléonore worked in Assurance & Advisory at Ernst & Young LLP, focusing on alternative investment funds and private equity firms.

Éléonore developed a passion for helping entrepreneurs and financing innovation while studying technology entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley as part of Stanford University’s immersion program for international students.

Jayant Kadambi

Managing Director

Quain Investments

Jayant is a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, 2x founder, technologist, and business leader who exited his first company in M&A and led his most recent company, YuMe, from inception to IPO (NYSE: YUME) as a global leader in digital media technology.  He is an early backer of over two dozen tech companies including unicorns such as Triller and Boostup.ai and is currently an advisor and board member for many of these. He holds several domestic and international patents in the fields of video, semiconductors, and advertising technology. Jayant is also a writer for several business and tech publications, notably his weekly series of articles titled “Letters from Silicon Valley” for Moneylife.

Shez Samji

Managing Director and Head of Business Development

Silicon Valley Bank

Shez oversees SVB’s market-facing efforts and client acquisition strategy across Canada. As part of his role, Shez leverages SVB’s global innovation platform by connecting companies, market influencers, and both Canadian and U.S. investors who are looking for growth or value-add opportunities.  Shez also leads the origination of Canadian corporate and sponsor-backed financings for public and late-stage technology companies and assists with the structuring of complex senior and junior debt financings.

With more than 10 years of direct private and public market investing experience, Shez’s background includes originating, structuring and executing transactions across the capital structure and in a variety of industries and situations.

Prior to joining SVB, Shez was a Vice President at Third Eye Capital, Canada’s largest private debt and special situations investor. He began his career at BMO Capital Partners, the Bank of Montreal’s principal investing division.

Shez lives in Toronto with his wife and daughter. Outside the office, Shez serves on the Investment Committee for Community Development Venture Fund, a nonprofit microloan company founded to support entrepreneurship, particularly among immigrants to Canada.

Marcus Daniels

Founding Partner & CEO

Highline Beta

Marcus Daniels is a Founding Partner & CEO of Highline Beta where he leads visionary execution, strategic deals, corporate venture co-investment and startup funding. He has 21+ years as a serial tech entrepreneur & operating executive with a top decile pre-seed investing (34 startups) track record. 12+ years working with Fortune 1000 companies advising on corporate innovation models & building a pipeline of new corporate ventures beyond the core business. Formerly the Co-Founder & CEO of HIGHLINE.vc and Managing Director of Extreme Startups, Marcus continues to help evolve accelerator models to make corporate-startup collaboration work

Maria Pacella

Managing Partner

Pender Ventures

Maria has over 20 years of investing and operational experience in emerging growth companies, with a focus on technology businesses. She spent 11 years with one of Canada’s largest venture capital firms where she invested in multiple early-stage ventures and served on a variety of boards, in the areas of enterprise software and health-tech. Along the way, she worked at two start-ups assisting with operational activities and strategic initiatives. Prior to that, Maria worked in M&A for Deutsche Bank.

Current board roles include Clarius Mobile Health, Jane Software, Teradici, Librestream, and One45 Software. She is also on the SFU Beedie School of Business Advisory Board and St. Paul‘s Hospital Foundation Board. She holds a BBA from Simon Fraser University, is a CFA charterholder and an active member and a past President of CFA Society Vancouver.

As an investor in the rapidly changing world of early-stage technology, Maria invests in exceptional entrepreneurs and teams that excel at identifying business opportunities, develop world-class products and are dedicated to building great companies

Ajay Gopal

Partner

Framework Venture Partners

Ajay Gopal is a Partner of Framework Venture Partners. Based in Toronto, Ajay has over a decade of combined VC and alternative investments investing and capital markets experience. With an entrepreneurial background, Ajay is a partner of a healthcare services company currently in operation in Toronto. Ajay currently serves on multiple Boards of Framework portfolio companies including Paper, Countingup, FlipGive and Daisy Intelligence. As a student of engineering with prior operational technology experience, Ajay is keenly interested in meeting with technology companies across all verticals and focused on helping entrepreneurs with the scaling journey.

Scott Morrison

Founding partner, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer

Wealhouse Capital Management

Scott Morrison is a founding partner, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Wealhouse Capital Management.  Scott is a Bay Street veteran with over twenty-five years of investment experience in the public and private global capital markets.  Prior to founding Wealhouse, Mr. Morrison led managed portfolios for notable firms such as Mackenzie Investments, CI Funds, Investors Group as well as Empire Life Insurance Company.  Mr. Morrison has been on the Board of Trustee of Boardwalk REIT (BEI-U) since May 2018 and also devotes his time as a member of the Investment Committee at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

John Ruffolo

Founder & Managing Partner

Maverix Private Equity

John is the Founder and Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity. John’s focus will is on guiding the strategy of the firm, Chair of the Investment Committee and is deeply involved with sourcing and leading opportunities particularly within the technology industry. John is also the Founder of OMERS Ventures. Through John’s leadership as Chief Executive Officer, OMERS Ventures had invested over $500 million of capital in over 40 disruptive technology companies across North America, including growth investments in Shopify, Wattpad, Wave, Hootsuite, Rover, Desire 2 Learn, Hopper, DuckDuckGo, TouchBistro and League. During his tenure at OMERS, John also formed OMERS Platform Investments as its Executive Managing Director. He has led investments in Purpose Financial, PointNorth Capital, District Ventures, OneEleven and ArcTern Ventures. John is also the Co-founder and Vice Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping high-growth Canadian technology firms scale up globally. Further, John sits on a number of boards of leading innovative organizations in both the profit and non-for-profit sector. John’s work has been recognized by numerous organizations. He has been selected as Canada’s Most Powerful Business Person by Canadian Business Magazine and as one of Toronto’s most influential persons by Toronto Life Magazine. John has been awarded with the Outstanding Progress and Achievement Award by the Schulich School of Business, an award for outstanding career achievements in their respective field. In 2018, John was honored with the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic which made him a 5th Class Knight. In 2020, John became a Fellow of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario (FCPA).

Fun fact: John and his wife named each of their children after their favorite bottle of wine.

Randolph B. Cohen

MBA Class of 1975 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration

Harvard Business School

Randolph B. (Randy) Cohen is the MBA Class of 1975 Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurial Management at Harvard Business School.

Cohen teaches finance and entrepreneurship at HBS, and has previously held positions as Associate Professor at HBS and Visiting Associate Professor at MIT Sloan.  He currently teaches Field X and Y at HBS, courses for students who are starting businesses while obtaining their MBA.  Last year he advised around 100 startup businesses in the courses.  He also co-created the Alternative Investments course for Harvard Business School Online, which is taken by thousands of students and professionals each year.

Cohen’s main research interests are the identification and selection of money managers who are most likely to outperform, as well as asset allocation, risk management, and anything else related to building great investment portfolios.  Cohen has studied the differential reactions of institutions and individuals to news about firms and the economy, as well as the effect of institutional trading on stock prices. Other research areas include municipal securities, cryptocurrency, and longevity insurance.

In addition to his academic work, Cohen has helped to start and grow a number of businesses, mostly but not exclusively in the area of investment management, and has served as a consultant to many other companies.  He is co-founder of PEO Partners, an asset-management firm which specializes in liquid private equity, a research interest of Cohen’s for over 20 years.

Cohen serves on the Board of the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and helped launch ExSight Ventures, a small VC specializing in therapies for vision loss.  His podcast, Dangerous Vision, in which he interviews fascinating people who have some connection to blindness, is available on iTunes and all other major platforms.

Cohen holds an AB in mathematics from Harvard College and a PhD in finance and Economics from the University of Chicago.

Rebecca Kacaba

CEO & Co-Founder

DealMaker

Rebecca is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of DealMaker, winner of Lexpert’s top 40 under 40 and named one of North America’s most innovative lawyers by the Financial Times. She practiced law on Bay Street for over 10 years, founded the startup practice group at one law firm, and was co-chair of the Toronto Venture Technology and Emerging Growth Companies Group at another. She works tirelessly in the pursuit of growth.

Alexandre Falin

Principal, Private Equity Team

Unigestion Asset Management

He joined Unigestion in February 2010. Alexandre started his career at BNP Paribas in Paris, developing systematic equity portfolios for private clients. He then worked at Harcourt in Zürich, as an operational due diligence analyst and subsequently as Head of portfolio risk. In this role, he was involved in the quantitative analysis of hedge fund portfolios and was the point of contact for key clients on risk management issues.

Alexandre holds a Master’s degree in Engineering from the Ecole des Mines d’Alès and a post-graduate degree in Financial Engineering from ESSEC in Paris. He is also a CAIA Charterholder.

Arthur Bushonville

Chief Executive Officer

DSC Quantitative Group

Art is the Founder and CEO of DSC Quantitative Group, LLC. He also developed the investable hedge fund index operation for Hedge Fund Research, Inc. (“HFR”) including index methodology, manager selection and structured product development and distribution. Prior to joining HFR, Art was the Founder/CEO of a venture backed Internet exchange operation focused on creating unique derivative markets for online trading. He managed the financial trading and investments group for Koch Industries and spent seven years in the Capital Markets Group at the First National Bank of Chicago (J.P. Morgan). He began his career at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange where he held various positions, including research and audit.
Art earned an M.B.A. from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BBA from Loyola University of Chicago

Cameron Joyce

Vice President of Research Insights

Preqin

Cameron Joyce has 10 years of experience in the investment industry and is currently part of Preqin’s Research Insights team based in London. He previously worked on the international equity desk of one of the largest pension funds in Latin America where he managed a $5bn allocation to Emerging Market equities in Asia. Cameron later went on to work for a Vietnam based investment bank, writing investment research for global institutional clients. Cameron is also a CFA Charterholder and an Economics graduate from the University of Manchester.

Michael Bunn

Partner

Norton Rose Fulbright Canada

Michael Bunn is a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP. He practises corporate and securities law with an emphasis on the investment management sector. He regularly advises on the establishment and capital-raising needs of Canadian and international investment funds, including private equity funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds and retail mutual funds. Once a fund is launched, he remains on hand to advise on continuous disclosure, regulatory, corporate governance and other ongoing matters. He also provides registration advice for Canadian and international investment fund managers, investment advisors and dealers regarding their business activities in Canada. Prior to joining Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, he practised at a leading offshore law firm in the Cayman Islands

Mark Shulgan

Managing Director

OMERS Growth Equity.

Mark Shulgan is Managing Director and Head of OMERS Growth Equity. Mark currently serves on the boards of TouchBistro, Dialpad and Coveo.

Prior to joining OMERS, Mark helped start and then led the Thematic Investing team at CPP Investments. At CPP, Mark oversaw a $5B investment portfolio comprised of public and private investments in high growth technology, healthcare and consumer companies located in North America, Asia and Europe.  Prior to CPP, Mark was a Vice President at Fortress Investment Group. He began his career as an investment banker at Scotiabank.

Mark is a graduate of Western University where he received a Bachelor of Arts and graduated with the Gold Medal and the University of Windsor where he earned an MBA.  Mark grew up in Windsor and now resides in Toronto with his family.

Jocelyn Blanchet

Partner, National Leader, M&A Tax Services

KPMG

Based in Toronto, Jocelyn is a Partner and the National Leader for KPMG’s M&A tax practice. He has more than 15 years of experience assisting private equity, venture capital and hedge funds and other financial sponsors to plan and execute acquisitions, reorganizations and divestitures. Developing solutions for complex situations has gained him recognition as an innovative tax planner.

In addition, Jocelyn has extensive experience working with financial institutions on the design of products and strategies in their highly-regulated and heavily-taxed industry. As a result, he understands the necessity of working with regulators and other business units (compliance, capital management, financial reporting) in the design and implementation of their tax-efficient structures.

Jocelyn has authored and spoken extensively on the design of investment funds and on other issues relevant to M&A. He is also the Chair of the Tax Policy Committee of the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA), advocating for positive tax changes in the industry.

Nicola Cowman

Director

Carne Group

Nicola Cowman is a Director at Carne Global Financial Services, where she oversees client relations and business development for the US. Nicola advises US asset managers on the establishment, structuring, distribution and ongoing operation of traditional, hedge, private equity, and real estate funds, within the AIFMD and UCITS framework. With an extensive background in AIFMD and UCITS, along with European distribution Nicola plays a key role in building Carne’s governance capabilities.

Ajay Gopal

Partner

Framework Venture Partners

Ajay Gopal is a Partner of Framework Venture Partners. Based in Toronto, Ajay has over a decade of combined VC and alternative investments investing and capital markets experience. With an entrepreneurial background, Ajay is a partner of a healthcare services company currently in operation in Toronto. Ajay currently serves on multiple Boards of Framework portfolio companies including Paper, Countingup, FlipGive and Daisy Intelligence. As a student of engineering with prior operational technology experience, Ajay is keenly interested in meeting with technology companies across all verticals and focused on helping entrepreneurs with the scaling journey.

Purvi Gandhi

Managing Director

Quain Investments

Purvi has over 20 years of professional work experience in institutional capital management in the United States and as CFO of a healthcare informatics company acquired by IMS.  Purvi has been board member / board advisor for tech and non-tech companies in Asia and Silicon Valley, served as CFO at public and private equity firms, was investment committee member for a PE division which spun out of JP Morgan Chase which was investing across Asia and United States and invested across 300+ companies during her time there.  In recent five years Purvi was key member of a team of an overseas investor, incubating a model to invest in tech venture at scale in Silicon Valley and was also on the investment committee of one of the funds they managed.  This portfolio of 300+ early and growth tech companies has generated 17 unicorns, 3 SPACs and 4 IPOs in 6 years.  In this role, Gandhi diligenced what became one of the company’s largest investment in 2016, in the Series D round of Stripe.  At her current firm, Quain Investments, Purvi and her co-founder have institutionalized this very strategy of investing in early and growth tech venture at scale.  They leverage a proprietary technology platform and partnerships with high volume of fragmented investors in the tech eco-system to access, assess and build a venture portfolio with higher probability of a strong alpha with a low beta.  Ms. Gandhi is an advocate for young girls to gain access to basic privilege of education.  She is on the board of Girl in Yellow Foundation which enables young girls in rural India to access high school education.

Mark Maybank

Co-founder and Managing Partner

Maverix Private Equity

Mark is a Co-founder and Managing Partner with Maverix Private Equity where he leads the collective team and firm operations. As an active investor, director, advisor and entrepreneur, he has a wealth of experience spanning across multiple industries and geographies. This includes financial services, technology, health and wellness, media, telecom, oil and gas, services, and advanced manufacturing. With a passion to drive growth with a focus on human elements, Mark strives to scale Canada’s strong and vibrant innovation-based ecosystem.

Prior to Maverix, Mark was the President and COO of Canaccord Genuity Corp, where he led the expansion of their wealth management and international capital markets businesses, positioning the firm as a global leader in commodity and technology financing.

In addition to being EVP, Corporate Development at Itemus Inc., a technology firm, he was also a Senior Technology Analyst with Yorkton Securities, and CFO of ECS Enhanced Cellular Communications, a US-based cellular services company. Mark earned his Chartered Accountant and Chartered Business Valuator designations at Deloitte in the audit, tax, and valuation advisory practices. Currently, Mark is the Chairman of Fleet Canada Inc. and serves on other boards including Forum Equity Partners and New Latitude Capital. Previously, he served on several boards including Executive Chairman (Advisory) of the Kirchner Group, Knix Wear, Entrec, Empire State Connector, Biologix, Moraine Capital, and Canaccord Genuity Financial.

Mark is an active philanthropist with former roles as Co-Chair of Gold Medal Plates, a Canadian Olympic Foundation program, Special Advisor to the Treasury Board of Canada, Ambassador for World Bicycle Relief, Advisor to SpiderTech cycling, member of the Corporate Advisory Board of the Art Gallery of Ontario and guest lecturer at the Director’s College.

Outside of the office, Mark and his family enjoy an active lifestyle which includes skiing, biking, running, and swimming. They enjoy travelling and spending time in Annecy, France and the Okanagan Valley, BC

Joseph Abramson

Co-Chief Investment Officer

Northland Wealth Management

Joseph is a world-class talent that has advised some of Canada’s most prominent ultra high-net-worth private investors, as well as many of the world’s most sophisticated institutions. His specialties include: asset allocation; risk management and providing unique, cutting-edge, money-making insights into global financial markets. Over his 25+ year career, Joseph consistently outperformed his benchmarks, including as a Research Analyst at Senvest, a prominent and highly successful Wall Street hedge fund.

Joseph was also a Strategist for BCA Research, the world’s leading provider of global macro strategy research to institutional investors. During his tenure, prominent BCA clients included: OMERs, TD, CDPQ, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, Barclay’s, Bank of Switzerland, and China Life. At BCA, he co-launched its Global Asset Allocation service which provides high-touch, interactive services to select top global institutional investment firms on all asset classes across all of the world’s regions. More recently, Joseph was the Chief Investment Officer for a Montreal-based advisory, private equity and venture capital firm.

Select highlights of Joseph’s career include:

• Building a highly sophisticated, tax-efficient, cross border wealth management platform – including real estate, PE/VC, and alternative funds – for a $450 million Canadian single family office.
• Creating a cutting-edge risk-adjusted investment framework for a top 10 UK wealth manager
• Provided a regular, in-depth annual on-site outlook to top 50 Swiss pension plan
• Creating a one-of-a-kind global sector/country matrix using proprietary indicators selected from over 1000 variables.
• Presenting his global growth and currency views to a Special Parliamentary Committee.
• Being quoted regularly in prominent business publications such as the London Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and Barron’s.

Marcus Daniels

Founding Partner & CEO

Highline Beta

Marcus Daniels is a Founding Partner & CEO of Highline Beta where he leads visionary execution, strategic deals, corporate venture co-investment and startup funding. He has 21+ years as a serial tech entrepreneur & operating executive with a top decile pre-seed investing (34 startups) track record. 12+ years working with Fortune 1000 companies advising on corporate innovation models & building a pipeline of new corporate ventures beyond the core business. Formerly the Co-Founder & CEO of HIGHLINE.vc and Managing Director of Extreme Startups, Marcus continues to help evolve accelerator models to make corporate-startup collaboration work

Eugene Zhang

Founding Partner

TSV Capital

Eugene Zhang is a Founding Partner of TSVC, a WMBE early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2010. Since inception, TSVC has invested in 188 startups across primarily deep tech, fintech and health tech sectors with 6 unicorns ($1 billion+ valuation), including, Zoom, Carta, Ginkgo Bioworks, Quanergy, Plus and Iterable. Eugene’s investment focus is on emerging technologies and FinTech as he continues keeping his work on gender diverse teams close to heart for coming cohorts. He has led investments in over 70 startups including ZOOM, Quanergy, Lex Machina, Trusper, TrustGo, Carta, Ginkgo Bioworks, Iterable, Gaatu, EquityZen, 17Zuoye and GigaDevice while serving on multiple boards including Gaatu and Tsinghua Entrepreneur & Executive Club (TEEC).

Zack Ellison

Founder, Managing General Partner, & Chief Investment Officer

Applied Real Intelligence (“A.R.I.”)

Zack Ellison, CFA, CAIA, is the Founder, Managing General Partner, and Chief Investment Officer of Applied Real Intelligence (“A.R.I.”).  A.R.I. is a Los Angeles-based venture debt investment manager focused on providing financing solutions to innovative, high-growth, VC-backed companies in recession-resistant sectors and underserved regions.  A.R.I. has dual missions of: (1) democratizing the availability of capital for all types of founders, including women and minorities; (2) providing the fund’s investors with unique access to “innovation” as an asset class, superior risk-adjusted returns, security of capital, and strong portfolio diversification benefits.  Mr. Ellison leads A.R.I.’s investment activities, including sourcing, due diligence, structuring, execution, and portfolio management.

Previously, Mr. Ellison was Director of U.S. Public Fixed Income at Sun Life Financial, where he was responsible for corporate credit investing.  Prior to Sun Life Financial, he was a corporate bond and credit default swap trader at Deutsche Bank. During the Global Financial Crisis, he was a banker focused on leveraged loans within the media and telecom sectors at Scotiabank.

Mr. Ellison is a frequent speaker at financial industry conferences, where he has presented his views on how companies and the financial markets need to innovate, adapt, and evolve to optimize risk and return.  He has been a featured speaker at events hosted by CFA, CAIA, AIMA, Risk Magazine, Euromoney, Bloomberg, TABB Forum, 100 Women in Hedge Funds, Women in Fund Finance, WBR’s Fixed Income Leaders Summit, and Private Equity Wire, among others.

Mr. Ellison holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an MS in Risk Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations and currently serves as a Board Member of the CFA Society of Los Angeles, a Board Member of the Southern California Chapter of the CAIA Association, and the West Coast Regional Director of the Hedge Fund Association.  Additionally, he is the Chair of the CIO Advisory Council and Chair of the University Relations Committee with CFA Society Los Angeles.  He sits on various leadership sub-committees of Tech Coast Angels (TCA), the largest angel investing group in the United States.

Raphael Bouskila

President

Mako Financial Technologies

Sudharshan Sathiyamoorthy

Vice President

Richter Family Office

Sudharshan Sathiyamoorthy is a seasoned investment professional with deep experience in the search, approval and monitoring process for alternative investment managers. He is Vice President and Head of Manager Research at Richter Family Office. Sudharshan has previously worked at some of Canada’s most respected institutions, including RBC Capital Markets, Diversified Global Asset Management, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Alignvest Investment Management. Sudharshan holds a Ph.D. in Physics, and was a Post-Doctoral Investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. 

Richter Family Office (RFO) is a multi-billion dollar multi-family office that provides independent and objective wealth management services to high net worth families and individuals. Established in 1999, and as one of the largest and oldest multi-family offices in Canada, RFO has gained an exceptional reputation for providing holistic advice to clients without the bias of affiliations with other financial institutions or wealth managers. RFO has offices in Toronto and Montreal.

Shannon Reaves

Partner

Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP

SHANNON REAVES is a Partner in the National Security/CFIUS/Compliance Group at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP in Washington, D.C. He focuses his practice in the areas of cross-border transaction reviews before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), industrial security, including Foreign Ownership, Control or Influence (FOCI) mitigation matters before the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy, and export control compliance. Shannon has represented clients in hundreds of CFIUS reviews, performed industrial security due diligence on numerous transactions and investigated multiple regulatory violations, including FOCI mitigation, sanctions, and export controls violations.

Shannon represents clients in pre-CFIUS filing analysis conducting due diligence to determine potential national security issues; preparing for CFIUS reviews and investigations, including assessing whether specific transaction structures create CFIUS jurisdiction; negotiating deal terms with the government and preparing filings; and advising companies regarding FOCI mitigation/negation compliance issues. Shannon routinely negotiates and prepares FOCI mitigation/negation arrangements, including Special Security Agreements, Proxy Agreements, Security Control Agreements and FOCI Board Resolutions. Shannon frequently serves as a resource for various government officials looking for insight from the corporate viewpoint.

Michael Steinberg

Managing Partner

Reciprocal Ventures

Michael has been an institutional investor in the technology sector for the past 25 years. He currently is the Managing Partner of Reciprocal Ventures, a firm he founded in 2016 to capitalize on early-stage private opportunities in Fintech and Digital Finance.

Michael is responsible for the overall leadership and investing efforts at the firm. He is an active investor and presently sits on the boards of Reciprocal portfolio companies Peekd, MindBridge, Qwil, WorkRails, and Tallarium.

Michael concentrates on the capital markets, asset management and breakthrough technologies powering blockchains and machine intelligence. He has been an early backer of notable pioneers in these areas including DataMinr, MindBridge, Solana, and The Graph.
Prior to Reciprocal, Michael served as a Portfolio Manager at SAC Capital Management (now Point 72) from 1996 to 2012. Starting at SAC during the early commercialization of the internet, he managed public technology investments within the hardware, enterprise software and communication sectors, generating 15 consecutive years of positive returns. His focus shifted in 2012, where he led the firm’s first Fintech investment in the private markets. He started his career at boutique asset manager Sanford C. Bernstein.
Michael has a Bachelor’s degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Charlie Morris

Co-Founder

CMCC

Charlie is the co-founder of CMCC Global, a blockchain asset management company that manages three digital asset funds as well as the Liberty Bitcoin Fund. CMCC Global was founded in Hong Kong in 2016 and today has offices in Asia and North America. It has a particular focus on Fintech innovation in Asia. Charlie’s background as both a software engineer and management consultant allows him to combine a deep technical understanding of blockchain technology with the ability to evaluate its business implications.

Charlie’s involvement in the blockchain space has included advising financial institutions, developing blockchain applications and investing in companies and protocols. He has given keynote addresses at the CLSA Investor Conference, Franklin Templeton annual offsite and the Global Investment Forum. He has also presented to senior management at many large institutions including Fidelity, Putnam Investments and Wellington Management.