Alexis Pappas

Chief Innovation Officer | GuildOne Inc.

The Chief Innovation Officer of blockchain and digital assets firm GuildOne Inc, Alexis has a diverse background in fields including energy, clean technology and digital innovation. A frequent writer and speaker on blockchain, the new economy and sustainability, she is the Executive Director of the Canadian Blockchain Association for Women and a Director of the Canadian Blockchain Consortium. Passionate about inclusion, Indigenous rights and the advancement of women, her vision is of a world where technology always includes the human equation.

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

Chris Popoff

President | Syzygy Engineering

Didier Lavallee

Chief Executive Officer | Tetra Trust

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

Jade Alberts

Vice President | Canadian Blockchain Consortium

I’m an Entrepreneur, Angel Investor and a Strategist that Tells It Like It Is. I’ve had a successful career as a sales Entrepreneur. Yes, I mean Sales Entrepreneur. I was allowed to create the sales that allowed me to understand growth, margin and profit. This was extremely handy when I became an Entrepreneur. I now share my knowledge with aspiring entrepreneurs as I believe lack of capital should not get in the way of what you need to succeed. I have exited a business and helped three others exit.

John Cassidy

Director of Canada | SVG Ventures | THRIVE

Managing Director I VC Investor I Government Relations I MBA I Results Driven leader

Jordan Smith

Chief Executive Officer | Quantized Technologies

Jordan graduated from the Haskayne School of Business in 2011 and went on to become a 5-time entrepreneur. His diverse background gives Jordan unique perspective and industry-relevant expertise, and Jordan is a national award winner in Sales. Jordan completed his BSc-Physics with First-Class Honours in 2020, with thesis research in quantum neuroscience. He went on to complete his MSc-Physics in experimental quantum cryptography in 2022. As a result of his work in physics, Jordan has been honoured with several academic awards and scholarships. Jordan brings a collaborative approach to industry, and loves to work with other stakeholders in transforming the Quantum ecosystem and in using quantum technologies to benefit and improve the world we live in. Jordan thrives in overcoming challenges and solving society’s largest problems at the smallest (quantum) scale.”

Kevin Dahl

Director of Alberta | Plug and Play Tech Center

Kevin is a geek at heart. He loves technology and is fascinated by its impact on society. As a Director with Plug and Play Alberta, Kevin is focused on creating impact in Alberta’s Innovation Community by bringing technology and innovation to market faster, driving business growth opportunities through open innovation, and connecting Alberta’s startups and corporate innovators into Plug and Play’s global network. Prior to joining Plug and Play Alberta, Kevin has spent the last 15+ years building companies and community in Calgary.

Koleya Karringten

Executive Director | Canadian Blockchain Consortium

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

Laura Kilcrease

Chief Executive Officer | Alberta Innovates

Laura Kilcrease is the Chief Executive Officer for Alberta Innovates, including its subsidiaries InnoTech Alberta and C-FER Technologies. Laura Kilcrease brings a track record and laser-focus to innovation ecosystem performance and design. Since her appointment in 2017, she has steered Alberta Innovates restructuring, spearheaded assessment of programs with an eye to the future, and launched Inventures, the flagship gathering of innovators, investors, industry leaders and global researchers, which PwC estimated catalysed some $200M in potential deal flow in 2019. Born in London, England, and recruited from Austin, Texas, Laura served as a member of the Alberta Research and Innovation Advisory Committee for seven years prior to joining Alberta Innovates. She is widely recognized as a key figure in changing Austin’s economy from oil dependency to high-tech prosperity to become the #1 city for entrepreneurs to live and work in the U.S..

She has more than 25 years of experience in commercializing technology, including:

• founding the venture capital fund Triton Ventures, LP;
• founding the Austin Technology Incubator, among the earliest in the United States;
• co-founding the Austin Technology Council, a premier economic networking organization; and
• launching the Capital Network, one of the largest angel investor networks in the U.S. with over $150M in completed transactions.

A dedicated community builder, Laura served on various for-profit and non-profit boards, including the Women’s Leadership Advisory Board of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, the Beyster Institute, World Congress for Information Technology 2006, the IC2 Institute at The University of Texas, and is currently on the board of the University Federal Credit Union, one of the top 100 credit unions in the U.S.. She has been often recognized for outstanding achievements, including the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Austin Business Journal’s Profiles in Power Award, and the University of Texas McCombs School of Business Trailblazer Award. Laura is a Chartered Management Accountant and has an MBA from the University of Texas.

Lawrence Truong, CFA, MBA, CAMS

Chief Executive Officer | Binance Canada

“My success as a leader comes from the ability to balance my fierce competitive spirit with a diligent pragmatic approach in solving business issues, delivering on strategic initiatives and in championing my people and organization.”

CAMS, MBA & CFA Charter Holder

AML specialist certified and regulatory compliance focused in crypto assets and deep experience in both derivatives and capital markets. Proven in developing good corporate governance and creating a culture of compliance and ownership within organizations. Experienced in building auditable compliance programs from the ground up using my expertise in office automation and VBA and understanding of market regulations. Experienced and profitable capital markets and derivatives trader in foreign exchange, fixed income, equity index futures and energy futures. Experienced in complex financial modeling and asset valuations in merger arbitrage, special situations, converts, options and swaps. Experienced project manager in developing and implementing advanced business analytics, custom reporting, tracking, and trading software.

PC skills in Excel, Access, SQL, VBA, Spotfire, Tableau and Bloomberg

Matthew Burgoyne

Partner | Osler LLP

Matthew Burgoyne is a corporate commercial lawyer and the head of the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain group at Osler LLp. 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.

Neeraj Gupta

Advisor | Attabotics

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

Pascal St-Jean

President | 3iQ Corp.

I believe in helping create opportunities to help businesses unleash their true potential and as such, I work with founders & entrepreneurs, who recognize the value of investing in personal and professional growth, not only for their own benefit, but also for that of their employees and customers. My focus is helping companies grow faster, easier, with less risk.

As a serial entrepreneur, I understand the importance of leadership development, team culture building, strategic thinking, and clear operational processes. My long-term vision is simple, yet ambitious – to lead and inspire businesses and their teams so they can reach their full potential. I have done so over the past 20 years, largely by facilitating the understanding and development of the kind of strategic thinking, planning, and execution that helps businesses to succeed.

Simon Grigenas, Global 500

Program Manager Canada | 500 Global

I’m a full-stack Software Engineer with experience in leading and mentoring teams. This experience stems from my time as an entrepreneur founding and scaling a startup, as well as assessing technological innovation of AI/ML startups in Canada for one of the most active venture capital firms in the world, 500 Global. I bring my entrepreneurial drive and innovative mindset, alongside a refined skillset in critical thinking and problem solving to the teams I’ve had the opportunity to work with.

My technical experience building applications focuses in Javascript, Typescript, React, Redux, Node, Docker, AWS, Express, NoSQL, PostgreSQL as well as GraphQL.

As a Software Engineer of Knight Owl, our team created an open source developer tool for defining security measures and access for GraphQL queries to mitigate malicious queries using depth/rate limiting and cost analysis. Knight Owl was developed and deployed under Open Source Labs Beta Tech Accelerator (opensourcelabs.io).

Tiffany Linke-Boyko

VC Principal | Flying Fish Partners

Flying Fish Partners are seed investors that invest in the rapidly growing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) sector, primarily software and mixed hardware that use AI or ML as foundations to their business, provide AI and ML products and services to others, or provide tools to AI and ML practitioners. The firm invests across the U.S. and Canada and has a particular focus on the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada.

Tyler Argue, CCFI-C

Vice President | Risk Control Canada

Tyler is a thought leader who has demonstrated his ability as a business accelerator while building collaborative business ecosystems and developing impactful teams. As an entrepreneur and business advisor, Tyler is actively engaged in guiding startups from inception to maturity.

His professional experience consists of oversight of investigation services, physical and cyber security, blockchain infrastructure, corporate governance, information security, and risk management. Throughout his career as a professional investigator, Tyler has conducted various complex investigations on behalf of some of Canada’s premier law firms, businesses, governments and corporations, including speaking engagements with the Canadian Bar Association and insurance benefits providers. Tyler is the Vice President of Risk Control Canada and the program principal for the ISMS support services offered by the firm. Visit riskcontrol.ca or email Tyler at [email protected]

As a shareholder and senior advisor, Tyler currently chairs the InfoSec Advisory Board at Gray Wolf Analytics Inc., a blockchain analytics and cybersecurity firm founded in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Visit graywolfai.com or email Tyler at [email protected]

Tyler holds a designation as a Canadian Certified Fire Investigator and serves as Director and Board Member for the Canadian Association of Fire Investigators. He also served as the Vice President and Executive for Calgary Crime Stoppers Association where he worked closely with southern Alberta’s law enforcement partners and Government stakeholders in developing crime reduction initiatives. Tyler is licensed as a Private Investigator in Alberta and has post-secondary education in Paramedicine (EMS), Information Security (ISO 27001;2022), Risk Management and Applied Police Sciences.

Board appointments:
• Regional Director, Canadian Association of Fire Investigators (CAFI)
• Past Vice President, Calgary Crime Stoppers Association
• Chair of InfoSec Advisory Board, Gray Wolf Analytics Inc.
• Director, UCP Highwood Constituency Association