Biography Pierre Cyr holds a bachelor of arts (Geography) from the University of Ottawa. He previously worked as director of board and stakeholder relations at Canadian Blood Services, following 15 years in federal and provincial government, where he served in a variety of senior roles. In addition to advising two Ontario premiers and a federal party leader, Pierre served as chief of staff in the Ontario ministrie...
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Harley Finkelstein is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Shopify. He founded his first company at age 17 while a student at McGill. Harley completed his law degree as well as his MBA at the University of Ottawa, where he co-founded the JD/MBA Student Society and the Canadian MBA Oath. Harley is on the Board of the C100, is an Advisor to Felicis Ventures & Omers Ventures, and is one of the “Dragons” on CBC’s Next Gen Den. In 2016, Harley was inducted into the O...
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Bonnie Butlin is co-founder and executive director of the Security Partners’ Forum (SPF), a first-of-its-kind agile international network of security professionals, bridging all domains and disciplines of security. Under the SPF banner, she created the Women in Security and Resilience Alliance (WISECRA), which engages a growing network of women in security and resilience associations and groups globally, as well as the Canadian Cybersecurity Alliance (CCA), which has since become the largest in...
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Kevin Chan is a global director and head of public policy at Facebook Canada who engages in an ongoing dialogue with the policy community on issues that affect the Internet sector, including election integrity, misinformation, freedom of expression, safety, and Indigenous culture and content online. A governor of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and member of the 2017 selection board for the Canada Excellence Research Chairs, he also sits on the advisory council of McGill’s Max...
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Elizabeth Dubois (PhD, University of Oxford) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communications at the University of Ottawa and Fellow at the Public Policy Forum of Canada. Her work examines the political uses of digital media, including media manipulation, citizen engagement, and artificial intelligence. She leads a multi-disciplinary team that includes political scientists, computer scientists, and communication scholars. Dubois collaborates internationally with non-profits, techno...
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As President and CEO of Martello Technologies, John oversees corporate strategy and the company's merger and acquisition activity, to grow the business and ensure the company’s position as a global industry leader. John led Martello's debut as a public company on the TSXV. A respected senior ICT executive, Mr. Proctor brings more than eight years of experience driving strategic initiatives that build businesses. Prior to his work in the private sector, Mr. Proctor served for more than twenty y...
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Dane Bedward is a seasoned strategic thinker and business problem solver. He has experience as an entrepreneur in start-up companies and as a senior executive/intrapreneur in large, multinational corporations (Johnson and Johnson Inc., Nordion Inc. and Genzyme Corp.). Coming from a business-oriented immigrant family, he started his apprenticeship early in life, working alongside his grandfather, who founded the Ottawa-based Brown’s Cleaners chain of dry cleaners. He learned the importance of pe...
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Dr. John Bell is one of Canada’s foremost immunotherapy researchers and a pioneer in harnessing the immune system to fight cancer.  A professor of medicine at uOttawa and senior scientist with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, he is also co-founder of Turnstone Biologics, which has raised more than $340 million in investment and has $2 billion in licencing agreements.  During the pandemic, he applied his decades of work on cancer-fighting viruses to develop a vaccine for COVID-1...
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Biography Mr. Lawrence Soloway is a partner in the law firm of Soloway, Wright LLP, where he has engaged in a wide ranging corporate/commercial, real estate, technology and insolvency practice since 1976. He was educated at University of Toronto (BA 1971) and the Faculty of Law of Queen’s University (LLB 1974). He taught at the Bar Admission Course for many years and has delivered papers and presentations at legal...
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Biography James Clark is President of Dunhelm Consulting based in Oakville. He was Vice-President, Business Development, for Aurion Capital Management Inc. based in Toronto until the end of September 2009.  He has over 15 years of investment management experience and has been associated with the University since 1994.  Prior to joining Aurion, Mr. Clark had managed a major Canadian pension fund and provi...
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