THE INTERSECTION OF CONNECTED TRANSPORTATION & ELECTRIFIED VEHICLES

Vice President, Corporate Toyota Canada Inc.
Keynote Speaker

Stephen Beatty is Vice President and Corporate Secretary of Toyota Canada Inc. (TCI), based out of the head office in Toronto, Ontario. He is responsible for the company’s Administration, Corporate Strategy & Innovation, External Affairs, Information Services, and Legal teams.

Prior to joining TCI in 1998 as National Manager, Government and Public Relations, Stephen
worked for 10 years as Executive Director of the Canadian Apparel Manufacturers Institute and the Canadian Apparel Federation, the Ottawa-based national trade associations for the clothing industry in Canada. In his time with the associations, Stephen led the industry’s efforts to transform itself into a modern, export-based business. He brought to that task extensive experience in strategic
planning, policy development, and media relations that he gained as a senior political advisor in Ottawa. His last position before leaving government to join the apparel industry was as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.

Stephen has been actively involved with a number of volunteer advisory boards and was most recently Chair of the Global Automakers of Canada. He was also chair of the Board of Directors of AUTO21, a network of centres of excellence that focuses on Canadian research expertise to improve the global competitiveness of Canada’s automotive industry.

Innovative Mobility Expert, Roads and Transport Authority,
Presentation Speaker

Dr. Zohdy is an expert in smart and innovative mobility solutions with more than 15 years of experience across USA, Egypt and the UAE in Intelligent Transportation Systems, Autonomous and Connected Vehicles technology and Smart City initiatives. He is currently the program manager for the Self-Driving (autonomous and connected) Transport strategy in Dubai Government, UAE. He is the author of over 40 peer-reviewed publications, and book chapters for innovative mobility research in addition he is a professional trainer/instructor of Future Mobility Systems & Smart Cities

Vice President of Data & Analytics, Geotab
Panelist

Mike leads the charge for developing solutions that enable insight from over 2 million connected vehicles and 40 billion telematics records that Geotab processes on a daily basis. Mike joined the Geotab team in 2016, and prior to that was the CEO of Inovex Inc. which in 2013,  spun off a brand new entity Maps BI — a platform for geo-spatial data visualization. Maps BI was integrated within Geotab’s telematics platform as a key partner and was later acquired by Geotab in 2016.  Mike has received numerous honors including the University of Toronto Arbor Award and Early Career Award, Engineers Canada Young Engineer Award, Professional Engineers of Ontario Engineering Medal, and the Cloud Innovation World Cup.

P.ENG., M.ENG., MBA 
Utility Industry Expert
Panelist

Providing energy and communication services to Oshawa, Durham Region, and parts of the GTA, with
utility experience spanning 40 years, Ivano leverages his leadership skills and change management
experiences to effect sustained business performance improvements throughout the organization.

Director, Electric Vehicle Critical Materials, General Motors
Panelist

Tanya leads the sourcing of critical materials required for the creation of cells for use in electric vehicle batteries.

Tanya’s prior responsibilities at General Motors include the founding of the BrightDrop procurement and supply discipline, taking GM’s first Smart Cities software platform, “Future Road” from concept to launch and partnering with Cruise Automation to forge viable sources of sensing and computing technologies to enable Level 4 vehicle autonomous operations. Tanya previously spent over a decade with the Rio Tinto Group, where she laid the commercial foundations for the implementation of fully autonomous mining equipment. Tanya has a passion for her faith, lifelong learning, history and languages, leading to a global career spanning her native India, as well as the United States, France, China, Japan, Australia and Singapore. Tanya holds dual Bachelors’ degrees in Economics and Communications and a Masters of International Business.

Skilton serves on the Board of FiveTwo, a Christian organization equipping entrepreneurs to start new ventures, as well as on the Leadership Advisory Board of the General Motors Asian Connections employee resources group.

Founder and CEO, Plug’n Drive
Panel Moderator 

Cara Clairman is President and CEO of Plug’n Drive, a non-profit that is accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles through education and outreach, to maximize the environmental and economic benefits that EVs can provide. Cara has taken Plug’n Drive from an idea to a thriving non-profit, recognized as a leader in the EV space. Focused on accelerating adoption for more than 10 years, Plug’n Drive has created a number of unique programs to reach consumers, including the award-winning Electric Vehicle Discovery Centre, launched in 2017, and the Mobile EV Education Trailer (MEET), launched in 2020.

Cara has more than 25 years of experience working in the environmental and sustainability fields, including 12 years working at Ontario Power Generation, initially as OPG’s environmental lawyer and later in the role Vice President of Sustainable Development. Prior to joining OPG, Cara spent five years practicing environmental law with the Torys law firm.

She holds a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall and a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University, as well as an Honours Bachelor of Science degree from Queen’s University. Cara is the 2017 recipient of the Women in Renewable Energy’s ‘Woman of the Year’ award and the 2021 winner of the Al Cormier Leadership Award from Electric Mobility Canada. She lives in a two EV household, including a Chevy Bolt and a Tesla Model 3.

CEO & Founder, Ecosystem Informatics Inc. (ESI)
Panelist – Hamilton Concurrent Session

Shirook Ali is an innovator and a technology creator with 20+ years experience in high tech industry; she has 33 issued patents and over 150 publications to her name.  She currently is the CEO of Ecosystem Informatics Inc (ESI) that she founded in 2019 – ESI is a next generation air quality monitoring and management solution. Shirook has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from McMaster University is a professional Engineer since 2007.

CEO, SWTCH
Panelist – Hamilton Concurrent Session

Carter Li is the Chief Executive Officer at SWTCH, an electric vehicle charging and energy management company focused on addressing the unique challenges of deploying EV charging infrastructure in high-density urban settings. Prior to
SWTCH, Carter was a management consultant at Deloitte in their Digital Strategy practice where he led digital strategy and transformation projects across multiple countries for energy, financial services, and life science industries. Carter is a
founding board member of the Ontario Clean Technology Industry Association and a committee member of Electric Mobility Canada. Carter attended McGill University for his BSc and PhD and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business for his MBA.

Senior Account Manager, BDC
Moderator – Hamilton Concurrent Session

Having previously been an entrepreneur herself, she aims to support as many Canadian entrepreneurs as possible with financing and advice.

Durham RTDS
Emcee

Chris Gillis, P. Eng. Manager, Applied Research Business Development, Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Durham College – has been focused on operational performance improvement, innovation and customer satisfaction for over 25 years in a wide variety of industries and sectors in Canada, the United States, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Durham College is a core member of DRTDS. In his current role as Manager, Applied Research Business Development, he is the college lead for connected and autonomous vehicles. As well, Chris works to connect companies in the advanced manufacturing and craft brewing sectors with funding and expertise needed to realize their innovations.