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Summits
2023 Toronto CIO Executive Leadership Summit
Ontario – Tue, 10-03-2023 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Visionary Leadership: Driving a Strategic and Secure Digital Agenda
Inflationary pressures and other macro-economic challenges are creating headwinds for technology executives and fellow members of the C-suite to execute on and achieve strategic goals through 2023. The fast-changing socio-economic landscape is prompting technology executives to become more creative than ever in a cost-conscious environment and to draw upon authentic and inclusive leadership skills to inspire their teams. Meanwhile, tech leaders will need to remain laser focused on new ransomware, phishing and crypto mining attacks amidst budgetary pressures.
Here are the four prevailing leadership and technology trends that HMG Strategy will be focusing on throughout its 2023 Executive Leadership Summit Series:
- Innovation & Invention to Spur Revenue Growth
- Fostering World-Class Collaboration and Teaming
- Harnessing Advanced Technology to Drive Cost Reduction
- Securing a Global Digital Agenda
Global economic challenges are creating unique opportunities for business technology executives to foster a collaborative culture, embrace fresh innovative approaches, and develop strong partnerships to leverage hot technologies such as AI, ChatGPT, cloud platforms and cyber technologies to securely move the needle for the business and win in tumultuous times.
October 3, 2023, 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM ET
8:00 – 9:00 AM
Breakfast and Networking
9:00 – 9:20 AM
Welcome and Introduction
Hunter Muller, Founder and CEO, HMG Strategy and co-host Kyoko Kobayashi, Managing Partner, CIOs Beyond Borders Group
9:20 – 9:30 AM
EXPERT TECH TALK: AI and the Future of Work: How to Thrive in the Era of ChatGPT
Dan Turchin, CEO, PeopleReign
AI, machine learning and technologies such as ChatGPT are beginning to revolutionize the future of work. Technologies such as ChatGPT are redefining how humans and bots will work together. In this timely and thought-provoking executive discussion, Dan will explore how AI and automation is changing the nature of work, how it will impact the day-to-day lives of executives and employees, the potential ‘gotchas’ associated with AI along with the interdependence between humans and machines.
9:30 – 10:05 AM
EXECUTIVE PANEL: Visionary Leadership: Driving a Modern AI Enterprise and a Secure Digital Agenda
Moderator: Hunter Muller, Founder and CEO, HMG Strategy
Maria Aiello, Global Head of Private Market & Real Estate Technology, Manulife Financial
Roman Coba, VP Technology and CIO, Federated Co-operatives Limited
John Comacchio, SVP and CIO, Teknion Corporation
Ron Ijack, VP, Information Strategy & Systems, Roots
Fariba Rawhani, SVP & Chief Information Officer, Teranet Inc
Global economic challenges are creating unique opportunities for business technology executives to foster a collaborative culture, embrace fresh innovative approaches, and develop strong partnerships to leverage hot technologies such as AI, ChatGPT, cloud platforms and cyber technologies to securely move the needle for the business and win in tumultuous times. At the same time, tech leaders will need to remain laser focused on new ransomware, phishing and crypto mining attacks amidst budgetary pressures.
In this powerful Executive Panel discussion, world-class CIOs and technology executives will share the steps they’ve taken to cultivate a collaborative culture and embrace innovative approaches to position their companies to succeed in a challenging environment while securing the hybrid workplace.
10:05 – 10:10 AM
HMG 2023 Global Leadership Institute Award Presentation to Roman Coba, VP Technology and CIO, Federated Co-operatives Limited and John Comacchio, SVP and CIO, Teknion Corporation
10:10 – 10:35 AM
Coffee Break, Networking and Meet Our Partners
10:35 – 11:10 AM
EXECUTIVE PANEL: Tapping Innovative Technologies and Partnerships to Drive Cost Containment and Power Business Growth
Moderator: Michael Lin, CIO, Travelers Canada
Yatin Dhareshwar, VP of Digital Services, YASH Technologies
Martin Jepil, Principal, Global VP, Enterprise Architecture & Integration, Avison Young
Mark Knoop, CTO, Traffix
Manoj Tiwary, CIO, Subaru Canada
Eric Whaley, CIO, Wolseley Canada Inc.
Many technology executives find themselves between a rock and a hard place. CEOs and CFOs are leaning on CIOs and technology leaders to find ways to reduce costs in a tight economy. On the other hand, technology executives are being counted upon to utilize hot technologies that can spark new business innovation and to support digital business models.
This panel of executives will share use cases for advanced technologies and partnerships that can lower costs and drive new business value.
11:10 – 11:35 AM
Coffee Break, Networking and Meet Our Partners
11:35 AM – 12:00 NOON
START-UP SHOWCASE: The HMG Innovation Accelerator
CEOs from top technology startups will share the challenges they solve for clients, the innovation they deliver to companies, and how their solutions are differentiated in the market. They will also provide insights into the current state of the startup landscape, and how CIOs can leverage startups to accelerate their businesses’ success. The panelists will be available to answer questions and provide feedback on how their respective solutions can help CIOs succeed.
Moderator: Emily Heath, General Partner, Cyberstarts
Raanan Raz, CEO and co-Founder, Avalor
TBD: Oasis
12:00 – 1:00 PM
Lunch and Networking
SIM Toronto News – Ray Gilbert, Managing Partner, Causal Effects, Inc.
HMG 2023 Global Leadership Institute Award Presentation and Photo
Kin Lee-Yow, CIO, CAA Club Group
Roman Coba, VP Technology and CIO, Federated Co-operatives Limited
John Comacchio, SVP and CIO, Teknion Corporation
Martin Jepil, Principal, Global VP, Enterprise Architecture & Integration, Avison Young
Naveen Kumar, Partner & Lead, Canadian Payments Practice, Capco
Presented by: Hunter Muller, Founder and CEO, HMG Strategy and August Pelliccio, Managing Editor – Digital, HMG Strategy
1:00 – 1:35 PM
EXECUTIVE PANEL: Security Innovation: Going Beyond Protection to Make Security a Competitive Advantage
Moderator: Gini Wong, Head of IT, MUFG
Israel Martinez, CEO and Global CTO, Axon Global
Farooq Naiyer, Global Lead Technology and Cyber Assurance, Munich Re Specialty Insurance
Lilian Seidaros, CISO & Vice President, IT Infrastructure, 360insights
Cybersecurity strategies are often developed with a defensive mindset. But for companies that have strong safeguards in place, this can provide them with a competitive advantage over industry rivals – especially if they are using AI to help strengthen their posture.
In this timely and compelling executive panel discussion, CISOs and security leaders will share how cybersecurity can provide organizations with a competitive edge along with the steps that can be taken to do so and the role that AI can play in these efforts.
1:35 – 1:40 PM
HMG 2023 Global Leadership Institute Award Presentation to Kin Lee-Yow, CIO, CAA Club Group and Naveen Kumar, Partner & Lead, Canadian Payments Practice, Capco
1:40 – 2:00 PM
Coffee Break, Networking and Meet Our Partners
2:00 – 2:40 PM
BREAKTHROUGH INSIGHTS PANEL: Generative AI: Will it Revolutionize the Customer Experience?
Moderator: Arik Kalininsky, CEO, Dalikoo
Sultan Akif, Digital Unicorn Account Executive Central Canada, Microsoft
Dr. Cindy Gordon, AI and Ethics – Adjunct Professor, George Brown College
Thierry Leroux-Demers, Principal Enterprise Architect, Manulife
Wahid Mohammad, CEO, PlektonLabs
Zia Shah, CISO and Executive Director, KPMG
A looming recession and softening business conditions have prompted many senior leadership teams to focus on cost cutting. Nevertheless, business technology leaders are still being counted upon to help drive innovation and to create new revenue opportunities. One way to do that is by leveraging artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and Generative AI to unearth fresh insights into customer preferences and shifting behaviors that can then spur new business opportunities ahead of the market.
In this executive panel discussion, world-class CIOs, technology leaders and industry executives share their recommendations for utilizing customer data and AI tools to mine new business opportunities and to monetize data more effectively.
2:40 – 3:00 PM
Coffee Break, Networking and Meet Our Partners
3:00 – 3:25 PM
EXECUTIVE PANEL: The Female Tech Leader as Enterprise Change Agent to Enable a Digital Business
Moderator: Kyoko Kobayashi, Managing Partner, CIOs Beyond Borders Group
Kin Lee-Yow, CIO, CAA Club Group
Roya Rezaie, Vice President, Technology Strategy and Operations, Manulife
Yasemin Sezer, Executive Director, CAPCO
Corinne Sharp, Co-Founder / CMO, The WIT Network
Female technology executives have an incredible opportunity to act as enterprise change agents as they sit at the intersection of how technology can be leveraged to drive transformative change across the organization. But to pilot such dramatic changes across the organization, bold leadership is needed to execute on digital business opportunities and go-to-market strategies while guiding the cultural transformation that’s needed to succeed.
In this captivating executive panel discussion, world-class business technology executives will share how they are applying an innovative approach to help to transform their companies’ business models and to guide the cultural evolution needed for the digital enterprise to fire on all cylinders.
3:35 – 4:00 PM
Closing Remarks & Raffle Prizes

Mark Polansky
Chairs














Mark Polansky
Advisory Board




James Betton
Former SVP, CIO & Life Operations
Ivari (Formerly Transatlantic Life Canada)
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Mohit Bhat
Vice President, Customer Solutions, Innovation, Digital Platforms and Cloud Transformation
Canadian National Railway
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Neil Bisset
Senior Managing Director and Chief Information Officer, Information Technology
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan
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Marc Lijour
VP Capacity and Innovation Readiness
Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC)
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Jamal Shah
Senior Advisor and IT Program/Project Delivery Leader
BroadView Consultants Inc
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Danny Torchia
Vice President, Technology Platforms and Operations at Walmart Canada
Walmart Canada
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Juliet Turpin
Vice President of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility Vice President of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility
Randstad Canada
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Christine West
Managing Partner- Financial Services & Insurance, Executive Services
Info-Tech Research Group
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Mark Polansky

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YASH Technologies focuses on enabling customers to succeed and drive IT business transformation. As a leading technology services and outsourcing partner for medium, large and fast growing global customers, we leverage technology and our flexible delivery models to drive performance and business value throughout a customer’s enterprise. YASH Customer centric engagement and managed services delivery framework integrate specialized domain and consulting capabilities with proprietary methodologies and solution Offerings to provision application, infrastructure and end user focused right-sourcing services. Headquartered in the United States with Delivery and Sales Centers globally, YASH serves its customers across six continents.

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Aptum enables customers to control and optimize workloads across hyperscale, regional, private, and edge cloud platforms. We are a global Consulting and Managed Service Provider of high-performance hybrid multi-cloud solutions with integrated cloud networking. As a platform-agnostic Managed Service Provider, we deliver truly comprehensive solutions that drive business value, enabling you to Own Your Destiny in the Cloud™.
https://www.aptum.com
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Netskope, a global cybersecurity leader, is redefining cloud, data, and network security to help organizations apply zero trust principles to protect data. Fast and easy to use, the Netskope platform provides optimized access and zero trust security for people, devices, and data anywhere they go. Netskope helps customers reduce risk, accelerate performance, and get unrivaled visibility into any cloud, web, and private application activity. Thousands of customers, including more than 25 of the Fortune 100, trust Netskope and its powerful NewEdge network to address evolving threats, new risks, technology shifts, organizational and network changes, and new regulatory requirements. Learn how Netskope helps customers be ready for anything on their SASE journey.
https://www.netskope.com/
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Tanium, the industry’s only provider of converged endpoint management (XEM), protects every team, endpoint, and workflow from cyber threats by integrating IT, Compliance, Security, and Risk into a single platform that delivers comprehensive visibility across devices, a unified set of controls, and a common taxonomy for a single shared purpose: to protect critical information and infrastructure at scale. State and local governments, educational institutions, federal civilian agencies and the U.S. armed forces trust Tanium to protect people; defend data; secure systems; and see and control every endpoint, team, and workflow everywhere. That’s the power of certainty.
https://www.tanium.com/
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Twilio’s trusted Customer Engagement Platform empowers you to build uniquely personal relationships at scale with customers around the globe. Create data driven, meaningful relationships with your customers across every digital channel with the ability to unlock all of your data, at unrivaled global scale, and built-in intelligence at every layer.
https://www.twilio.com/en-us

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Aisera is the industry’s first proactive, personalized, and predictive AI Service Management (AISM) solution that is purpose-built to automate tasks and actions for IT, HR, Facilities, and Customer Service. Aisera’s next-generation AI Service Desk works with existing service desk solutions to deliver an end-to-end AI Service Experience for employees and customers. The AI Service Desk automates and resolves more than 50 percent of tasks, requests, and workflows to deliver self-service to users.
https://www.aisera.com/
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Illumio, the Zero Trust Segmentation (“ZTS”) company, stop breaches and ransomware from spreading across the hybrid attack surface. The Illumio ZTS Platform visualizes all traffic flows between workloads, devices, and the internet, automatically sets granular segmentation policies to control communications, and isolates high-value assets and compromised systems proactively or in response to active attacks.
Assume breach. Minimize impact. Increase resilience.
www.illumio.com

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Avalor is the data fabric for security teams, providing quick access and analysis of disparate data pipelines overlayed with business critical context. Avalor’s open data platform takes a modern, source-agnostic approach to security – dynamically ingesting, normalizing, and enriching data from any source (legacy systems, data lakes, data warehouses, sql databases, applications, etc.) to build a complete picture of all weaknesses or adversaries (CVE, code flaw, misconfigurations, app security findings, external attack surface risk, third party risk, user behavior risk, etc.). With Avalor, organizations can embed business context and KPIs into prioritization workflows and achieve full cycle risk assessment, remediation, and reporting while expanding into additional use cases with full transparency of their data.
https://www.avalor.io/about

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Egon Zehnder was founded in 1964 with a distinctive vision and structure aimed at achieving two basic goals – to place our clients’ interests first and to lead our profession in creating value for our clients through the assessment and recruitment of top-level management resources. The most fundamental expression of our client-first vision resides in our structure, which is unique to our profession. Our 390 consultants, operating from 63 wholly owned offices in 37 countries, are organized around a single-profit center partnership. This is designed to eliminate competitive barriers between our offices. It allows us to operate seamlessly when engagements call for us to mobilize across many offices in a country or a region. Large or small, local or global, our clients benefit from our structure by having access to our most relevant resources and relationships wherever they may reside. Underpinning this unique structure is our private ownership. We have chosen to operate our firm independent of any outside interests and are motivated solely by a desire to exceed our clients’ expectations.
http://www.egonzehnder.com
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Heidrick & Struggles actively solves business problems for our clients every day. Through our Leadership Advisory framework, we help companies attract, develop and retain the world’s most talented individuals. For almost 60 years, we have focused on quality service and built strong leadership teams through our relationships with clients and individuals worldwide. Today, Heidrick & Struggles leadership experts operate from principal business centers in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.
http://www.heidrick.com
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At Korn Ferry, we design, build, attract and ignite talent. Since our inception, clients have trusted us to help recruit world-class leadership. Today, we are a single source for leadership and talent consulting services to empower businesses and leaders to reach their goals. Through our vision, research and tools across 80 offices and 3,700 employees, we convert potential into greatness. Our solutions range from executive recruitment and leadership development programs, to enterprise learning, succession planning, and recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). Organizations around the world trust Korn Ferry to manage their talent – a responsibility we meet every day with passion, expertise, integrity and results.
https://www.kornferry.com
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Founded in 1956 and privately owned, Spencer Stuart is one of the world’s leading executive search consulting firms. We are the advisor of choice among top companies seeking guidance and counsel on senior leadership needs. We have unrivalled access to leading executives around the world. Our clients range across industries, from the world’s largest companies to medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurial start-ups. We operate out of 51 offices in 27 countries. Last year we conducted more than 4,000 assignments around the world. Our team of more than 300 consultants possesses a unique blend of professional search experience and industry expertise. Consultants are organized in practices and work in teams, often across international boundaries that maximize sector specialization and knowledge-sharing. These client service teams are supported by first-rate associates and researchers, and backed by state-of-the-art technology. We place quality at the center of everything we do and solicit candid feedback at every opportunity in order to continually improve our service to clients. We channel our knowledge and expertise into a wide range of publications for the benefit of existing and prospective clients.
https://www.spencerstuart.com

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We have spent years building industry leading companies. We bring this trove of experience and relationships to every venture we invest in. Cyberstarts was the brainchild of many deep conversations with our most successful cyber peers to distill the holy grail that enabled us to build important companies. It soon became clear that the trajectory to success is determined at a venture’s earliest start. That our deep inside perspective and highly engaged network during this critical earliest stage were unique ingredients in our successes. By aggregating these close relationships for entrepreneurs who we believe in, we knew that we can create incredible value for our tight network of CISOs who enjoy the earliest access to solutions that they help to define. These peers became investors and Cyberstarts became the only VC primarily funded by the industry’s most successful cybersecurity founders.
https://cyberstarts.com/about
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Greylock Partners backs entrepreneurs who are building disruptive, market-transforming consumer and enterprise software companies. We invest in companies that define new markets, including Airbnb, AppDynamics, Cloudera, Docker, Dropbox, Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD), Medium, Nextdoor, Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW) and Workday (NYSE: WDAY).
http://www.greylock.com
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GTM Capital is singularly focused on helping our portfolio companies gain a massive competitive advantage by rapidly accelerating customer traction.
https://gtm-capital.com
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Lightspeed Ventures is a global VC firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, with offices in India, Israel, and China. With over $7 billion under management, Lightspeed invests in both enterprise and consumer tech startups from early-stage to late-stage. With over 300 active startups in the portfolio, Lightspeed has invested in companies like Brocade, Informatica, Nutanix, AppDynamics, Mulesoft, zScaler, etc. Lightspeed has also created a CIO Innovation Advisory Network to connect forward-thinking IT leaders with Silicon Valley.
http://lsvp.com
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Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm that strives to have a positive impact on everything we do. That’s why we support businesses including Betterment, Carta, Roku, Poshmark, Uber, and Warby Parker that are reimagining life and work for the better. Over 43 years, we’ve grown a portfolio that includes more than 70 public companies, over 100 mergers and acquisitions, and $5.5 billion under management. We invest at every stage and in every sector, with expertise in Consumer, Enterprise, and Healthcare. From developing market strategies to creating communities, we provide real impact where entrepreneurs need it most. When we’re in, we’re all in.
https://www.menlovc.com/
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Sequoia is a venture firm with a 40+ year track record of partnering with daring entrepreneurs. Founded in 1972, we’ve been early business partners with many of technology’s biggest companies (Apple, Google, Oracle, Cisco, and more) along with many emerging leaders (WhatsApp, Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow, FireEye, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Airbnb, etc).
https://www.sequoiacap.com

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The CIO Association of Canada (CIOCAN) represents senior IT executives across Canada, with over 300 CIO members. Our member CIOs work in medium to large enterprises across private, public and education sectors. CIOCAN was formed by CIOs, and CIOs drive the agenda. CIOCAN members value highly their opportunities to network with their peers in a vendor-neutral atmosphere, at live events, and electronically — peers who can provide objective and knowledgeable insights into the emerging challenges and opportunities that CIOs collectively face. CIOCAN national and chapter-based programs address a range of issues from hot topics of the day to longer-view challenges for business leaders, and through CIOCAN advocacy initiatives we provide a unified voice for CIOs. Visit us at www.ciocan.ca
Visit us at www.ciocan.ca
Venue
Glen Abbey Golf Club
1333 Dorval Dr
Oakville, ON L6M 4G2

Mark Polansky
Registration
The CIO Executive Leadership Summit is created for CIOs/IT leaders. It also has strong appeal to leaders interested in better positioning their organizations and themselves for what’s ahead in business and to achieve the greatest benefits through the use of information technology.
To ensure a high quality environment and to maximize the networking experience, all attendees must be:
- Employed C-Level executives (non-vendor) or equivalent, CIOs, Direct Reports of CIOs, or Senior Most IT Professional in an organization with $200M or greater revenue, or from not-for-profit or government organizations with comparable size
– OR –
- Full time academicians
If you meet the criteria above, there is no fee to attend.
All registration requests will be reviewed and approved based upon above stated criteria.
* Sales/marketing individuals or consultants from non-sponsoring vendor organizations are not permitted.
Special Needs – We fully support the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you require special assistance of any kind, please call us at (203) 243-1674 or email us at registrar@hmgstrategy.com.
