Adam O'Brien

Chief Executive Officer | Bitcoin Well

I’m passionate about rethinking existing systems to unlock new opportunities. I have always had a curiosity to learn about and adopt new technology which is what inspired me to dive into bitcoin and empower our society to do the same.

Adrian Mitchell

Co-Founder | Cherry Health

Adrian is a proven leader with over 20 years of experience in Business Development, Strategic Planning, Project Management, Technical Analysis and Economic Evaluation. He has experience with the intensity of Start-Ups, the customer focus of B2B Service Companies, and the organizational complexities of large companies (both Domestic Public and Foreign-Owned Private firms). At the start of the pandemic, Adrian found himself at home taking care of his three children full time while his wife, a family physician, was on the front lines of the COVID-19 response for the homeless population in Calgary. He had been working in tech for the past seven years and decided to take the opportunity to refresh his technical expertise by enrolling in the University of Calgary’s Master’s of Data Science and Analytics with a Health Data Science and Biostatistics specialization. While completing the Master’s he joined the team at Cherry Health as Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer where he is helping to build a great new Alberta health-tech company focused on solving healthcare staffing challenges nationally.

Alex Szecsy

Business Development Manager | Memory Express

Worked for multiple engineering companies in the oil and gas industry before switching to manager of business development at Memory Express. We are currently launching two new platforms, BitcoinMarketplace.com and Acadme.com.

Andrew MacIsaac

Chief Executive Officer | Applied Pharmaceutical Industries

Andrew MacIsaac is director and CEO at Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation (API), an industry-led not-for-profit organization that serves as a catalyst to support the development of life science products and companies. API combines Canadian research institutions, industry staff, and infrastructure to build highly qualified teams that can commercialize discoveries. With a background in economics and public sector management, Andrew MacIsaac was previously Assistant Dean at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and held various roles in the Alberta School of Business and UBC Sauder School of Business. Over his career, Andrew has worked tirelessly to build bridges between academia, industry, philanthropy, and government to further economic growth and societal impact. Projects that Andrew has worked on have led to close to $700 million in economic impact and Andrew has been recipient of the 2022 Edifier Award for his work with API. In his spare time Andrew serves on the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, Policy Committee, the Province of Alberta Research Commercialization Working Group, the Calgary Life Sciences Innovation Hub Steering Committee, and the Edmonton Health City Steering Committee, and a number of company boards and advisory groups.

Brenda Beckedorf

Executive Director | Alberta IoT

Brenda Beckedorf has been Executive Director of Alberta IoT since August 1st, 2019.

Brenda started her career in technology with Graycon Group as Director of Business Development for Canada. Ricoh Canada, formerly Graycon Group, is an IT consulting firm that specializes in the design, implementation, and support of all network systems.

In her role as Executive Director, Brenda’s focus is to increase government and local industry awareness of Alberta IoT through dialogue, events, and social.  Investing in our IoT business community by highlighting their skills and building a community that can support and grow together will be part of her mandate.

Through Brenda’ leadership, the Alberta IoT Centre for Excellence was developed. The IoT Centre of Excellence exists to recruit businesses & expertise, coordinate research & projects in the Province of Alberta. Our mission is to put Alberta as a world leader in the Internet of Things and emerging technologies.

Brenda is the part of the AIoT Canada Board of Director as Director for Alberta. This role is focused on fostering and developing a pan-Canadian IoT and IoT-oriented AI ecosystem and provide a forum for Canada’s Internet of Things Conversation

Bryan Slauko, CFA

Managing Partner & Co-Founder | Metiquity Ventures

I work with privately-held, small and medium sized businesses to help accelerate their growth by attracting early-stage risk capital. I also work with investors to mobilize their capital by delivering confidence in our investment expertise and fully vetted investment opportunities.

Catherine Warren

Chief Executive Officer | https://innovateedmonton.com/

A champion of enlightened and digital economies, Catherine Warren is the CEO of Innovate Edmonton and is a new Edmontonian. Prior to her arrival, Warren has lived and worked in Canada, the US, UK and Europe, and has served as a C-suite executive for publicly-traded companies, academic institutions and government-business enterprises.

Most recently, as Chief Executive Officer of Vancouver Economic Commission, she led the team in attracting $3B in foreign direct investment to the region, with a portfolio including the Vancouver Film Commission, the world’s largest animation and visual effects sector, smart cities technologies such as AI, 5G and quantum computing and the green and impact economies.

In more than two decades as a tech advisor, Warren’s track-record includes mergers and acquisitions for digital distribution and digital IP, raising capital and liquidity events for tech companies, consulting to national media funds, hedge funds, crowdfunds and coaching executives on strategic growth and monetization. Earlier in her career, she was the start-up COO of a broadcast software company that she and her partners took to the Nasdaq and grew to a $300M market cap.

A veteran board director and tech investor, Warren is also Canada’s representative on the Emmy Nominating Committee and the World Summit Awards for digital innovation, a United Nations flagship program. Warren has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, with a focus on climate change, and a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York, where she did her original thesis work onsite at MIT covering the launch of its digital Media Lab.

Crystal Phillips

Health Lead and Community Manager | Thin Air Labs

Crystal Phillips is the Health Lead at Thin Air Labs. Crystal joined the team to build a venture fund and ecosystem in Calgary that will provide new investment and support for early stage ventures. Crystal is also a former National Level Speed Skater and Board Director at the Branch Out Neurological Foundation, a charity she co-founded in 2010 to accelerate innovative technologies and non pharmaceutical approaches for neurological disorders. The Branch Out Foundation has raised over 3 Million dollars and funded over 90 research projects and programs across Canada. It has become a catalyst for change in health care and non-pharmaceutical neuroscience. When not moving mountains in health tech, she’s climbing them in the Canadian rockies with her dog named Bear.

Dan Spuller

Director of Industry Affairs | Blockchain Association

Daniel Spuller is the Head of Industry Affairs for the Blockchain Association in Washington, DC. Since 2012, Spuller has been an advocate of decentralized digital assets, bitcoin, and blockchain-based technologies. He is an appointee to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s business and payments advisory council, and in 2019, was appointed Co-Chair of the North Carolina Blockchain Initiative by the Office of the Lieutenant Governor.

From 2016-2020, Spuller led membership and growth at the Washington-based Chamber of Digital Commerce growing it from 38 to over 200 members at its peak. He previously worked for North Carolina’s Department of Commerce and was instrumental in facilitating industry negotiations with the Commissioner of Banks, successfully driving a multi-stakeholder campaign leading to the legislative passage of America’s first comprehensive blockchain-related legislation through the North Carolina Money Transmitters Act of 2016.

In 2013, Spuller co-founded the Cryptolina Bitcoin Expo, and has since driven blockchain thought leadership as a sought after resource sharing insights with corporate and governmental agencies, lawmakers on Capitol Hill and regulators at the state and federal level.

Dave Bradley

Chief Revenue Officer | Bitcoin Well

Dave Bradley is a prominent figure in the Bitcoin industry and is widely considered one of the leading experts in Canada on bitcoin, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Prior to his current role as the Director of Strategy at Bitcoin Well, Dave founded the world’s first bricks-and-mortar Bitcoin store and co-founded the successful company, Bull Bitcoin, which is Canada’s longest-serving bitcoin brokerage. He also serves as a Vice President for the Canadian Blockchain Consortium, Canada’s largest non-profit network of blockchain companies and influencers.

Deborah Wilson

Chief Industry Engagement Officer | TrustBIX

Deborah Wilson is Chief Industry Engagement Officer of TrustBIX Inc., which operates the Business InfoXchange (BIX) and ViewTrak Technologies in Canada, US, Mexico, and China working in agriculture, agri-food supply chains, agtech, sustainability and traceability. With a strong business and marketing background, Deborah, along with her colleagues, works on systems development, facilitating data sharing in supply chains, supply chain partnerships and pilot projects.

The BIX platform provided Chain of Custody to the McDonald’s Sustainable Beef Pilot Project from 2015 to 2016. The formation of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) followed this pilot project. Deborah is in her second term on the National Council for CRSB, and currently serves on the CRSB Business Strategy Committee.

Wilson was one of the key players in the formation of the Canadian Beef Sustainability Acceleration (CBSA) Pilot Project. TrustBIX provided an auditable “chain of custody” to Cargill in the CBSA pilot, from 2017 to 2019. It is now a permanent program for Cargill, called the Certified Sustainable Beef (CSB) program based on the CRSB Framework, tracking animals/beef from birth to plate

Deborah has spoken at the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef in Ireland and the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock at Kansas State University in 2019. Both groups have catalyzed multi-stakeholder action to improve the livestock industry’s use of natural resources whilst ensuring its contribution to food sustainability, security, and livelihoods.

Today the enhanced BIX platform is working in beef as well as poultry, pulses, canola and biochar validating source and movement information. Environmental practices and benchmarking demonstrating improvement in GHGs and Carbon will become necessary in food production.

Deborah’s family cattle operation has used technology and data for production improvement, and increased profitability since the late 1980’s. Wilson has a long history of championing the farmers, ranchers, and the agricultural industry. She believes validation of claims and improved sustainability practices are the next challenges in the agri-food industry and will be solved by technology.

Del Mondor

Chief Executive Officer | Aldon Oils Ltd.

Minister Doug Schweitzer

Minister of Jobs, Economy and Innovation at Legislative Assembly of Alberta | Legislative Assembly of Alberta

Doug’s not a career politician. He’s a father, husband and former Partner with the largest law firm in the world with a love for his Province and an unrelenting optimism for what it can be. He’s a third generation Albertan who believes it is up to us to make sure future generations have the same opportunities many of us have enjoyed over the years.

Godard

Chief Operating Officer | Verge

Godard is the Chief Operating Officer of Verge Agriculture and oversees all product and commercial operations for the company. He received his Ph.D, Master’s, and Bachelor’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Ryerson University, Toronto. He has over 10 years of leadership and strategy execution experience specializing in program management.

Prior to joining Verge, Godard served as the Vice President, PMO for the BlackBridge group of companies for 4 years. He was responsible for managing BlackBridge’s project portfolio and future space systems program.

Haley Thomson

President | Imperium Digital

Jade Alberts

Founder | Peer Guidance

Jade is an Entrepreneur, Angel Investor and a Strategist that Tells It Like It Is. He’s had a successful career as a sales Entrepreneur. Yes, he means Sales Entrepreneur. He was allowed to create the sales that allowed him to understand growth, margin and profit. This was extremely handy when he became an Entrepreneur. He now shares his knowledge with aspiring entrepreneurs as he believes lack of capital should not get in the way of what you need to succeed. He has exited a business and helped three others exit.

Our team has done the following during our entrepreneurial journeys:

Bootstrapped
Raised Capital
Created Sales Playbooks
Created Budgets
Asked for help
Hired People
Scaled Nationally
Cried
Built Sales Teams
Made Connections
Built Internal Teams
Created Marketing Plans
Wondered when we will make money
Created Content
Create Policies and Contracts
Fired People
Sleepless Nights
Created Positive Cultures
Designed Websites
Failed and Learned from it
Exited Businesses
Sold Businesses
Celebrated Successes

Janine Moir

National Blockchain Assurance Leader, Innovation & Transformation Assurance (I&TA) | Deloitte

Janine is on the cutting-edge of the profession, serving as the National Digital Assurance Leader at Deloitte. Digital Assurance services are designed to help Deloitte’s clients transform their traditional financial reporting cycles, by empowering finance teams with leading-edge innovation and digital technologies. These technologies include blockchain, analytics, RPA and algorithms. Janine is a founding member of the Canadian Blockchain Association for Women (www.cbaw.io), a board member of the Canadian Blockchain Consortium, and a board member for the Horizon Housing Society. Janine is a CPA, CA with over 15 years of experience providing Advisory and Assurance services and working in industry. Janine has worked in various industries with a focus on bringing the finance function and operations together. She loves bringing this expertise and experience to her clients.

Jeff Booth

Entrepreneur, Technology Leader, Author, and Strategic Advisor | Jeffrey Booth

Jeff Booth is a visionary leader who has lived at the forefront of technology change for 20 years. He is the best-selling author of “The Price of Tomorrow – Why Deflation is Key to an Abundant Future”. In his book, Jeff offers his provocative thesis about the current state of our economies and what must happen to enable a brighter future.

Jeff has been featured in Forbes, TechCrunch, Inc.com, The Globe and Mail, BNN, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Bloomberg, TIME, and The Wall Street Journal. In 2015, he was named BC Technology Industry Association’s (BCTIA) Person of the Year, and in 2016 Goldman Sachs named him among its 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs. 

He is a Founding Partner of OtioLabs, Co-Founder of addyinvest.com and NocNoc, and serves on the boards of Terramera, Cubic Farms, LlamaZOO, and Synthiam as well as numerous advisory boards. 

He has been a Young Presidents Organization member since 2004 and contributes time as a Founding Fellow on the Creative Destruction Lab.

Price of Tomorrow Links

Book website:
https://thepriceoftomorrow.com/ 

Official hashtag:
#priceoftomorrow

Amazon book page:
https://thepriceoftomorrow.com/amazon

Twitter account:
@priceoftomorrow

Linkedin account:
The Price of Tomorrow

Facebook account:
@priceoftomorrow

YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/c/ThePriceofTomorrow 

Jasmine Palardy

Community-Builder and City-Builder | The Good Future Co.

Community-builder and city-builder who brings creators of all stripes together to share and build — with a focus on more collaborative cities and communities. Jasmine has spent a career working with creative and technology communities to build programs and spaces that accelerate innovation.

Jasmine was on the startup team of one of the world’s first community crowdsourcing and crowdfunding platforms, which led to her engaging in a research project with Harvard Business School. Following that, Jasmine identified and coached start-ups from around the globe in telling their stories to Bay Area investors.

With work experience in Calgary, Vancouver and San Francisco, Jasmine launched GROW (Canada’s first major Silicon Valley-connected startup tech conference), was the founding director of Beakerhead — a five-day engineering and arts festival in Calgary, Canada — and has created community engagement programs for urban districts and innovation studios, including the initial project vision for Platform Calgary, and most recently, the activation strategy for SAIT’s new School for Advanced Digital Technology.

Julie Bogle

Partner in the Securities and Capital Markets Group | Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

Julie is a partner with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP and is a member of BLG’s Securities and Capital Markets Group and Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Group. Julie acts for public and private companies in connection with mergers & acquisitions, initial public offerings, corporate financings, corporate reorganizations and compliance matters. Julie represents a growing number of technology companies, and has helped cryptocurrency companies become publicly listed on the NEO, TSX Venture Exchange and CSE. She is the founder of the Driven by Women Initiative and dedicated to helping more women get into leadership positions.

Justin Riemer

Assistant Deputy Minister | Prairies Economic Development Canada, Alberta Region at Government of Canada

“Justin Riemer assumed responsibility as Assistant Deputy Minister for Prairies Economic Development Canada’s Alberta Region in the fall of 2019.

Previously, he held several senior positions at the Government of Alberta and Alberta Health Services, providing leadership and achieving results in industry development, investment attraction and growth of advanced technologies.

As a respected, passionate, dynamic leader of industry and economic development in Alberta, Justin has an impressive depth and breadth of experience in innovation and industry development policies and programs.

Justin holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Carleton University, and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Political Science. He is married and the proud father of two young men.

Khurram Shroff

Chairman, President and CEO | iMining Technologies Inc.

Mr. Khurram Shroff has been an early adopter and supporter of Blockchain technology. He has been involved in various activities within the sector since 2010. Over the years, Mr. Shroff, through his Family Investment Office, has invested in multiple Blockchain solutions and protocols, has been an ardent champion of Blockchain and was also instrumental in the launch of Ethereum 2.0. Mr. Shroff is also an award-winning global banking and finance leader, who has been featured in the prestigious list of the “Top100 Most Powerful and Influential Muslims in the World” by Power100.

More recently, Mr. Shroff was nominated to become the Chairman and the CEO of iMining Technologies Inc., a Web3.0 company listed on the Toronto Stock Ventures Exchange (TSXV: IMIN). Under Mr. Shroff’s leadership iMining has expanded into developing technology for Crypto Mining, Decentralized Finance (“DeFi”), Metaverse Non-Fungible Tokens (“NFT”) and acquired BitBit Financial Inc., a crypto OTC Trading Platform for individual and institutions.

Mr. Shroff is very passionate about entrepreneurship and has mentored some of the most influential blockchain projects and blockchain teams around the world. He is avid speaker and thought leader in the blockchain technology space.

Mr. Shroff is a founding member of the Aga Khan Museum, in addition to being a member of the University Club of Toronto. In 2015, Mr. Shroff was appointed as a Civilian Sponsor at the Canadian Armed Forces College.

Koleya Karringten

President / Founder | Absolute Combustion International

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 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 Alberta’s blockchain technology industry as the CEO of Bitquest Corp., the Executive Director of the Alberta Blockchain Consortium (ABC), co-founder and board member of the Canadian Blockchain Association for Women (CBAW), and CEO of Civitas Events Corp. In her leadership role at the ABC, she has merged her passions for technology and social good to bring together blockchain companies, corporate leaders and government to build the province’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 Alberta.

Kris Read

Co-Founder | NEO Financial

Kris Read is a co-founder at Neo Financial – a technology company building a better financial experience for all Canadians. Since its inception in 2019 Neo has raised aprox. $100M and partnered with iconic brands like Hudson’s Bay; their credit card delivers instant cash rewards when you pay at the stores you love. Before Neo, Kris helped build the tech teams at San Francisco startup Lottery.com and at local cryptocurrency startup Vogogo Inc. Kris holds a Master’s degree from the University of Calgary and has worked for top global tech firms like Stripe and ThoughtWorks.

Kunal Bhasin MBA, CISA, CBP, CCI

Director & Co-Lead, Cryptoassets & Blockchain CoE | KPMG Canada

Krista Rabidoux, CPA, CMA, EA

Partner | Andersen

I have over 20 years of experience providing US – Canadian Cross Border tax planning and compliance services. As a Partner with Andersen LLP, I work with businesses and individuals to assist them with mitigating tax requirements in both the US and Canada.

My work includes:

– US Citizen tax reporting obligations

– Ensure businesses with operations both inside and outside of Canada meet their tax obligations

– Advise on employer and employee obligations when working outside of their home country 

– Analyze domestic tax laws, in conjunction with income tax treaties of various jurisdictions, to come up with favorable tax results

– Work with professional athletes and artists, their advisors and agents, to constantly manage ever changing tax situations

I graduated from the Grant MacEwan with distinction and received my designation as a Certified Management Accountant in 2003. In 2005, I was enrolled to practice before the Internal Revenue Service. I have also completed level III of the In-Depth tax course (2007), CICA Advanced International Tax Course (2008), and CICA Corporate Reorganizations (2011). Throughout 2011 – 2015 I moderated levels 1 & 2 Group Study for the in-depth Course. Most recently I received my Masters in Legal Studies of Taxation from the University of San Francisco. 

In addition to tax, as a certified as a life coach I am passionate about team building and providing people with the right skills to develop into strong and highly functioning professionals. Throughout my years of experience I have developed a number of highly effective teams providing the best service to my clients. 

Specialties: US Cross Border Tax, Canadian International Tax, US International Tax, Tax Planning and Restructuring, US Tax Return Compliance, Canadian Tax Return Compliance, Cross Border M&A, FIRPTA, FATCA, Expat and Inpat Employee Programs; US Real Estate; US Citizen Disclosures; Canadian / US Immigration and Emigration; US Estate Tax Planning; Professional Athletes Compliance and Advising

Kurtis Broda

CoFounder | Wyvern

Lori Stein

Partner, Fintech, Securities Regulatory | McCarthy Tétrault

Lori is the Co-Head of Osler’s Digital Assets and Blockchain practice and a Partner in the Corporate Department. Lori advises fintech businesses and other capital markets participants on Canadian securities regulatory matters. Lori assists fintech clients to develop innovative business structures and obtain regulatory approval under securities and derivatives laws when required. Lori is recognized as a leading Canadian fintech lawyer by Chambers and Partners and is a Partner in the Blockchain Stream at Creative Destruction Lab, University of Toronto Campus.

Laura Kilcrease

Chief Executive Officer | Alberta Innovates

Lindsay Smylie

Director of Alberta | Plug and Play

Lindsay is a passionate and natural connector with experience saddling multiple industries. As a Director with Plug and Play Alberta, Lindsay is driven to connect the best startups to large corporations who can help bring technology to market faster. Helping Alberta companies scale and commercialize being the main objective. With a strong foundation in municipal business processes, Lindsay brings with her 15+ years of health care experience in strategic systems planning, innovation and business consulting. An entrepreneur at heart, she founded and operated one of the largest capacity craft distilleries in Alberta and most recently helped driveeconomic development efforts within the Agriculture industry at Calgary Economic Development helping to bring Plug and Play to Alberta.

Marcela Mandeville

Chief Executive Officer | Alberta Womens Entrepreneurs

Marcela has explored the world of business through a globally focused business undergraduate degree, designation as a Certified International Trade Professional and more than twenty years of global experience developing and implementing business strategies. A career highlight has been taking on leadership roles at Alberta Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) to support AWE’s goal to build stronger communities and economies through women’s participation in entrepreneurship.

Marcela believes strongly in continuous learning and contributing to the community. In addition to serving as Chair of the Women’s Enterprise Organizations of Canada and Chair of Explore Edmonton, she volunteers her time on the University of Alberta Professional Development for Graduate Students Advisory Board, Works for Women Advisory Board, and the Edmonton Region Innovation Network Steering Committee.

Mark Korthuis

President & CEO | Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation

Mark Korthuis is the President & CEO of the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation. The Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital is the largest free-standing rehabilitation hospital in North America containing seven specialized areas of treatment – orthopedic, geriatrics, pediatrics, stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury, and cardiac rehabilitation. Prior to his current role, Mark spent five years as President and CEO of the Alberta Mental Health Foundation. 

Mark is an active member of the Edmonton community, serving as Vice-Chair with the Edmonton Community Foundation and as a board member with the Telus Edmonton Community Board and the Global Psychological eHealth Foundation. Mark is also a member of the Canadian Blockchain Consortium’s Web3 committee.

Mark was named Edmonton’s Top 40 under 40 in 2020 and was recently inducted into the University of Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.

Twitter: 

@markkorthuis

@glenrosefdn

Linkedin: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markkorthuis/ 

(@markkorthuis)

https://www.linkedin.com/company/glenrose-rehabilitation-foundation/ (

@Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation)

Instagram: @markkorthuis, @glenrosefdn

Matt Parker

Executive Vice President of Innovation & Technology | HelpSeeker

As the Executive Vice President of Innovation & Technology at HelpSeeker Matt leads the development, data science and product teams. Helpseeker is a 65 person social innovation focused B-corp based out of Calgary. Matt has obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Victoria and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business.

Matthew Burgoyne

Partner | McLeod Law

Matthew Burgoyne is a corporate commercial lawyer and the head of the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain group at McLeod Law. Since 2013, Matthew has advised clients in digital currency law and has assisted in the formation of cryptocurrency exchanges, assisted digital token and coin developers, cryptocurrency ATM providers, cryptocurrency investors, cryptocurrency miners and cryptocurrency related investment funds. Matthew provides legal advice to businesses involved in stable coin and initial coin offerings, along with securities law and anti-money laundering law.

Matt McGuire FCPA, FCA, CFF, CAMS, AMLP, CCI

Co-Founder and Practice Leader | The AML Shop

Matt is an internationally recognized expert in anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and sanctions compliance, and leads the advisory practice team at The AML Shop. He has been assisting governments and financial services companies to assess and reduce financial crime and related regulatory risks for fifteen years.

Matt is a Chartered Professional Accountant and has been inducted as a Fellow of CPA Ontario, is certified as an Anti-Money Laundering Specialist and Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator, and accredited as an Anti-Money Laundering Professional, and Certified in Financial Forensics.

Matthew has been qualified as an expert witness in forensic accounting and money laundering, has testified before Senate committees, Parliamentary Committees, and the Cullen Commission of Inquiry into money laundering.

Melissa Smith

Partner | Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

Melissa is a partner in the Securities and Capital Markets Group in BLG’s Calgary office. Melissa focuses her practice on corporate and securities law with an emphasis on mergers, acquisitions and other business combinations of public and private issuers including take-over bids, amalgamations and plans of arrangement. She also advises clients on financing transactions including public and private offerings of debt, equity and convertible securities, and compliance with corporate and securities regulatory requirements and drafting of a large number of corporate and commercial documents including governance documents, shareholder agreements and other business agreements.

In addition, Melissa assists with plans of arrangement, mergers, acquisitions and other business combinations, prepares a wide variety of commercial, securities and corporate documents, and conducts due diligence on behalf of issuers, agents and underwriters in a variety of contexts.

Melissa is the Chair of the BLG’s Calgary Student Committee.

Minister Nate Glubish

Minister of Service Alberta | Government of Alberta

Nate was sworn into the role of Minister of Service Alberta for the Government of Alberta at a ceremony at Government House in Edmonton on April 30, 2019.

Prior to his political career, Nate dedicated his professional life to facilitating investment in Alberta technology companies. He began his career with Foundation Equity, an investment firm, where over eight years he rose to Partner and participated in the negotiation and success of several multimillion-dollar technology business investments.

Nate then spent four years at the Edmonton head office of NCSG Crane & Heavy Haul Services, where he managed their mergers & acquisitions efforts, investing over $150 million to buy eight companies and grow their operations across North America. These transactions generated significant interest from the Private Equity investment community, which resulted in the sale of a majority stake in NCSG to one of the largest Canadian private equity firms.

Most recently, Nate worked for Vancouver-based Yaletown Partners, a Venture Capital fund, where he oversaw investments into Alberta-based technology companies. Nate is passionate about helping Alberta companies to raise investment capital to commercialize innovative new technologies around the world.

In preparation for the 2019 Election, Nate left his position with Yaletown to focus full-time on his election campaign. On April 16th Nate was elected to represent the riding of Strathcona-Sherwood Park for the United Conservatives.

Neeraj Gupta

Chief Strategy Officer | Attabotics

Neeraj is expert on AI/ML/IOT, Product Management, Innovation Management, Strategy, International Business Expansion, Patent Consulting, Legal-tech.

Neeraj is Chief Strategy Officer and Advisor to the CEO at Attabotics which is one of the most successful 3D robotics supply chain companies headquartered in Calgary, Alberta.

Neeraj is Chairman at India Alumni Chapter for KTH, Sweden and is on the Board of KTH Alumni Advisory Board. He is Governing Council Member at IIT Alumni Centre Bengaluru, IITACB .

Neeraj is one of the experts at Swissnex India and advises Swiss startups. He is also senior Technology Advisor at Sweden-India Business Council.

Neeraj holds Bachelors of Technology degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Metallurgical and Material Sciences and Masters of Science Degree from Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden in Scientific Computing and Mathematics. Neeraj is PGPX in General Management from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Neeraj is author of book “Creating & safeguarding a strong Intellectual Property Portfolio” which was written in collaboration with SIDBI, Adelphi and KFW Bank Germany.

Neeraj is senior mentor and visiting faculty in several engineering and MBA colleges.

Pamela Draper

CEO | Bitvo

Pamela Draper is the President and CEO of Pateno Payments Inc., a firm that provides development solutions in the payments space, as well as the President and CEO of Bitvo Inc., a crypto asset trading platform launched in Canada in 2018. Prior to joining Pateno and Bitvo, Pamela spent approximately 14 years with top tier Canadian banks, in the areas of corporate and investment banking. Most recently Pamela held the position of Director in BMO Capital Markets’ Equity Capital Markets group in Toronto where she was responsible for assisting North American corporate clients raising capital in public and private markets. Pamela obtained an Honours Business Administration degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. Current voluntary positions include acting as a Director for the Canadian Blockchain Association for Women and for the Calgary Public Library Foundation. Pamela also serves as an Advisory Committee Member to Rallie, a financial technology company on a mission to get more women investing.

Pascal St-Jean

President | 3iQ Corp.

Pascal St-Jean is the President of 3iQ Corp.

Throughout his career, Pascal has focused on the transformation and disruption of industries via rapid scaling of businesses under his leadership. Having successfully created and grown multiple business ventures, Pascal was recognized as one of the youngest recipients of Ottawa’s Forty Under 40 award.

Pascal is the co-founder of STAND Advisors where he served as Strategic Advisor and Fractional Executive to over 5% of the Globe and Mail’s 500 fastest growing companies in Canada. 

Pascal’s experience in open-source technologies and distributed systems led him to invest in cryptocurrency in 2016, and act as an educational resource on digital asset investments to several organizations. In addition, Pascal has served as a strategic consultant to bitcoin mining start-ups such as Hydra Mining and founded Quasar Strategy, a private multi-strategy Bitcoin fund.

Philip Long

Partner, Business Law | KPMG

Phil Long practices corporate and securities law in the Business Law group at KPMG Law LLP. He advises clients on a broad range of matters, including capital raising, mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions. Phil works with clients at all stages, from start-ups to established businesses and large cap public companies. In the blockchain space, Phil has advised clients on securities regulatory matters in respect of token generation events, SAFTs and trading platforms. Phil’s practice lends itself to a diverse array of industries, and he has previously worked with clients in the real estate, mining, health care, fintech and information technology sectors.

Richard Jones

Partner | Brownlee LLP

My law practice focuses on dispute resolution and risk/litigation management. I enjoy working with clients and helping them with the myriad of issues that come along with commercial transactions and conducting business.

Specialties: complex commercial litigation, water and irrigation, environmental, municipal and planning, and agriculture and agri-food, along with tech and blockchain.

McMillan Vantage is a unique service. We offer strategic advice and messaging in government and media relations.

Rohit Joshi

CEO | Brightsquid

Rohit Joshi is actively engaged in the top trends in secure healthcare communications. As the CEO of Brightsquid Secure Communications Corp he is at the helm of Canada’s leading compliant communications services provider for the healthcare industry.

Rohit has been working in software and digital security in North America for over 20 years. He has deep insights into the healthcare communications industry, experience creating operational efficiencies, and developing compliant communications strategies – all of which have driven the fast paced growth of Brightsquid.

As a veteran of software design and healthcare communications, Rohit is consistently successful in identifying opportunities for additional healthcare improvements. Brightsquid translates that expertise into systematic process improvements for clinicians and clinics, through the integration of industry best practices and innovations.

Russ Erickson

Vice President, Investments and Partnerships | Amii

Russ Erickson has over 25 years of experience in the Alberta technology sector building global sales, marketing and strategic business development teams. He leads the Investment and Partnerships team at Amii.

Prior to joining Amii, he worked with the founders at Nureva, a Calgary-based collaborative audio technology company, to help conceive, launch and grow the company into a world-class audio conference technology company. Concurrent with building Nureva, he worked through a sister company to invest in several growth-stage companies, including serving on the board of directors of one of those companies and advising the executive teams of others.

Russ spent nearly two decades at SMART Technologies, one of Alberta’s great success stories. He was responsible for expanding SMART’s global footprint through international sales and marketing distribution channels and teams on the ground in key markets, as well as through key strategic technology and go-to-market alliance relationships.

Russ earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan where he was heavily involved in the international student organization AIESEC. He still serves as an advisor to the local chapter of AIESEC at Mount Royal University. When he’s not doing those things, he’s often found coaching youth baseball or hiking with friends.

Ryan Mueller CFE - CCCI - CAMS

Chief Compliance Officer | Phantom Compliance

Serene Yew

Executive Technical Director | PixelTree

Shea Ferster

Business Advisor | MNP

As a Partner with MNP we work with Agriculture businesses on a variety of business matters including: business planning, succession, tax planning, risk management and the preparation of tax returns and financial statements.

Stephen Babour

Chief Executive Officer | Upstream Data

Stephen Barbour is a mechanical engineer and is the owner of Upstream Data Inc., an oil and gas service business based in Alberta which focuses on upstream oil and gas power generation and bitcoin mining solutions. Stephen has over 10 years experience in facilities and production in Canada’s heavy oil industry and is passionate about increasing oil and gas production efficiency.

Tonya Fleming

Manager, Innovation and Financial Technology | Alberta Securities Comission

Experienced leader, lawyer and governance professional. Extensive experience leading and managing the legal, human resources and corporate services needs of publicly traded entities. Comprehensive understanding of the requirements and processes involved in corporate governance, providing advice and direction to directors and senior management on proper and effective governance oversight and public company legal and regulatory compliance.

Zachary Novak

Building Community | Careers In Technology and Innovation

Zachary’s purpose is centered around empowering people to develop meaningful relationships & have fulfilling careers and lives. His current focus is on building communities that enable his purpose.

Zac started his career in investment banking, advising senior management teams on over $30 billion of strategic financial transactions. Zac held increasingly progressive roles at several large multinational banking institutions including BMO Capital Markets, Barclays Capital and Macquarie Capital. Post investment banking, he worked at Tervita, an environmental waste company. During his tenure at Tervita, he executed a $2 billion reverse take-over acquisition taking the company public on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Through his time in finance, Zac was recognized by his peers for being a team player: focused on mentoring fellow colleagues, organizing social experiences, and a curiosity to find solutions to the people problem’s in the business.

Post finance, Zachary followed a passion for technology. He completed a full stack developer training that equipped him to architect and code his own web applications. Combining his experience in technology and business, with his focus on empowering others, Zachary joined Actionable, an organizational behaviour change technology company focused on conversations and habit building. At Actionable he built the product function as the Director of Product. He led product discovery and execution, and acted as the bridge between the user, business and engineering team.

Post Actionable Zac was the Executive Community Director at RevV for its RevV Leaders Network. A global community of like-valued and diverse purpose-driven leaders, that support, motivate and encourage one another to make an impact in the world. ‘

Zac currently spends time supporting the local innovation community, with a focus on helping others find career fulfillment by either pivoting or growing their careers in technology. Zac founded the Careers in Tech community, which is a community to support, motivate and encourage those looking to break into technology. Zac also provides community consulting services and teaches courses to help professionals pivot into tech.

Zac also founded Cancer Crusher, a community event series that raises funds for local cancer charities. He and his team have raised over $150,000 for cancer charities, and have been recognized in the Globe and Mail.

Zachary has earned degrees in both engineering and business, from the University of Western Ontario and Richard Ivey Business School, respectively, graduating with distinction.

Zachary Storms

Founder and Chief-Organizer | Startup TNT

Having Fun. Making Friends. Building Companies. Join me every Thursday or at the next Investment Summit.