Speakers
Please check back regularly as more speakers are added.
Chris Keefe - Vice President Autonomous Programs – North America, Aurrigo (Keynote)
Chris Keefe has been a part of cutting-edge innovative technology for over decade, increasing mobility on personal level with Not Impossible Labs to a global scale through Aurrigo Driverless Technology. In his current role, Chris leads the focus on enabling development and production programs to drive Aurrigo forward in the autonomous space in Canada and the USA. He has played an instrumental role in showcasing how Ottawa and in particular the L5 CAV facility is providing a world class integrated testing ground for the safe implementation of connected and Autonomous Vehicles.
Corey Clothier - Director, Stantec GenerationAV™, Stantec (Presenter)
For more than a decade, Corey has been fascinated by autonomous mobility and how we're going to get there. Since co-developing the US Army’s Applied Robotics for Installation and Base Operations program, he’s led a number of strategic projects focused on deploying automated mobility worldwide. Corey leads Stantec GenerationAV™, the automated vehicle arm of Stantec’s Smart Mobility group and a product of Stantec’s Innovation Office. It brings together the Stantec autonomy team with key industry partners, to offer the enabling services and products that support comprehensive planning, both strategic and operational. In his role leading the group, Corey is focused on planning for the safe and innovative deployment of autonomous vehicles globally. Over his career, he has led ground-breaking teams which developed some of the first autonomous vehicle demonstrations and pilots for the general public, along with leading the team which created the first SAE Level 4 autonomous shuttle built in the United States.
Saiedeh Razavi - Associate Professor; Chair in Heavy Construction; Department of Civil Engineering; Director, McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics McMaster University (Moderator)
Dr. Saiedeh Razavi is the Director of the McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics (MITL), Associate Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, and the Chair in Heavy Construction at McMaster University. Dr. Razavi has a multidisciplinary background and considerable experience in collaborating and leading national and international multidisciplinary projects on smarter mobility, smart infrastructure, construction and logistics. Her formal education includes degrees in Computer Engineering (B.Sc.), Artificial Intelligence (M.Sc.) and Civil Engineering (Ph.D.). She combines several years of industrial experience with academic teaching and research. In her role as Director of MITL, she brings together the private and public sectors with academia for the development of high-quality evidence-based research in mobility, transportation infrastructure, and logistics. She is a member of the provincial “Hamilton Transportation Task Force” to support the Government off Ontario for $1 billion capital investment in transportation and transit projects in Hamilton. In April 2017, she was invited to the Parliament of Canada to present her transportation research at McMaster at the “Research Matters” event to the Members of the Parliament. She is currently a member of the Discovery Grants Evaluation Groups in Civil, Industrial, and System Engineering.
Mike Branch - Vice President, Data & Analytics, Geotab (Panelist)
Mike is the Vice President of Data & Analytics at Geotab and leads the charge for developing solutions that enable insight from over 2 million connected vehicles and 30 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 Innovex 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.
Wayne Scott - Senior Director of Transport Maintenance, Loblaws Companies (Panelist)
Wayne has held various responsibilities in the transportation industry over his past 35 years. Wayne started off his carrier at the local Freightliner Truck dealership obtaining his class A technician license and moving over to sales for a few years. Eventually, Wayne moved over to Freightliner Corporation to teach mechanics for 5 years, teaching across North America ultimately ending up taking over the responsibility as a District Service Manager for 5 years After spending 20 years at the OE level, Scott moved over to the fleet side starting off his carrier at Challenger Motor Freight out of Cambridge taking care of their fleet of over 7,000 assets across North America. In 2007, Scott moved over to Loblaw’s to take care of their fleet of 400 power units and over 4,000 trailers, taking over the reasonability for their fleet across Canada, including the responsibility for transport innovation including the electrification of the fleet and working on the autonomous side looking for opportunities with in the company.
Richard Steiner - Head of Policy and Communications, Gatik (Moderator)
Richard is a policy professional and people leader with over 10 years of experience in the public and private sectors, focusing on advanced technologies. Rich leads the policy, regulatory and communications portfolios for Gatik, the leader in autonomous middle mile delivery. Prior to working in the autonomous delivery sector, Richard spent 7 years with Ontario Health, applying emerging technologies in healthcare to meet Indigenous community needs. Rich also worked on behalf of a number of major energy-from-waste technology companies in the UK, leading community consultations. Rich holds a Master of Public Policy from King’s College London.
Eric Matthews - Chief Technology Officer & Co-Chief Cyber Strategist, Parabellyx Cybersecurity (Keynote)
Through his 20 year career in IT Security, Eric has worked in a variety of roles, executing security strategy, penetration testing, research, red team exercises and web application security initiatives. Eric has founded, developed and lead enterprise-level security consulting and monitoring teams, and has been responsible for managing incident response for multiple, high-profile security breaches.
Mark Majewski - Senior Vice President, Innovex (Presenter)
Mark Majewski has had a career path of being an Engineer to Executive in various technologies. He has grown a multinational semiconductor company in Canada, from sales of $20 to $200 million per year. He has been the Vice President of two technology startups (with exits), the lead for Transformative Technologies at Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), a CEO of intelliFLEX (an alliance of 130 innovative companies) and now is SVP of Inovex. He has commercialized innovation at transformative companies like Amazon, Tesla, Google, Philips Healthcare, Rockwell, Siemens, Medtronics, Microsoft, P&G, Eaton, Eli Lilly, Ford, etc. He also is a volunteer mentor at RICs and McMaster and a recognized public speaker at seminars, academia, governments and other organizations.on innovation and technology.
Dr. Ikjot Saini - Assistant Professor, University of Windsor; Cyber Security Committee Member, Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association (Panelist)
Dr. Ikjot Saini is an Automotive Cybersecurity professional whose research is focused on Connected and Autonomous Vehicles covering the security and privacy of V2X and in-vehicle security. She has published many research papers and journal articles, including V2X privacy schemes, engineering privacy attacks for equitable assessment, DSRC network congestion and routing protocols. She is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Windsor. She is also an independent Security Consultant. She is the co-founder and co-director of SHIELD - Automotive Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence. She is serving as the Academic Director of the Automotive Security Research Group and chapter lead at Windsor. She is currently serving as a member of the advisory committee of the APMA Cyber Security Committee and Project ARROW as a V2X technology expert. Dr. Saini is passionate about cybersecurity and is a leading voice promoting women’s participation and leadership. She has founded the first Canadian Student Chapter of Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) with the mission to provide opportunities for women to learn and get hands-on experience and was awarded for Student Chapter of the Year in 2020 among 103 student chapters. She is currently serving as Academic Chair on WiCyS Ontario Affiliate Board. She is stream owner of “IoT and Edge Security” at Aggregate Intellect and serving on various advisory committees. She is serving on the Auto Parts Manufacturers Association- Cyber Security Committee as V2X Technology Expert. She was the winner of the cyber woman of the year award, one of the cyber mobility awards, in 2020 and inaugural WEtech Alliance Woman in Tech of the Year award in 2019. She has been featured in 2020 Canadians to Watch by Auto News Canada.
Dr. Khalil El-Khatib - Professor, Networking & IT Security, Ontario Tech University (Panelist)
Dr. Khalil El-Khatib is a full-time professor in the Networking and IT Security program and the director of Institute for Cyber Security and Resilient Systems at Ontario Tech University. Before joining Ontario Tech’s faculty, he was an assistant professor at the University of Western Ontario. He has worked for the National Research Council of Canada as a Research Officer in the Network Computing Group (now Information Security Group) and is a co-director of the Advanced Networking Technologies and Security research lab. Prior to this, he worked as a research assistant in the computer science department at the American University of Beirut (AUB), before joining the High Capacity Division at Nortel as a software designer. His current research interests include: Security and privacy issues in wireless sensor network, mobile wireless ad hoc networks, and vehicular ad hoc networks; Big data and security analytics; Smart grid security; Biometrics; and Smart Communities for Smart Cities.
Danny Aniag - Professor & Program Lead, Cybersecurity Graduate Program, Durham College (Panelist)
Danny Aniag has two Master of Science degrees in Computer Science and Information Security and is a Certified Information Security Officer (CCISO), Certified Information Security Auditor (CISA) as well as a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH). Currently, Aniag is a full-time professor and program lead in the Cybersecurity Graduate Certificate program at Durham College, with over 29 years of teaching experience. He also administers and oversees Durham College’s AI Hub Machine Learning Lab, working collaboratively with IBM on high capacity systems in AI applications. He has more than 25 years of experience in business intelligence, systems security, AI development, network and server administrations, and risk management and data recovery in academia and industry. In addition, Aniag is the founder and principal consultant of his own cybersecurity firm, which has performed multiple compliance and technical projects. His projects range from financial institutions, government agencies, private corporations, and universities. Aniag’s research interests include: Security Auditing & Governance; Business Intelligence; Data Warehousing; Artificial Intelligence (AI); Business Continuity Management; Business Processes & Security; Audit Process, ITIL; Information Asset Protection; Risk Management; and IT Security.
Ali Hirji - AI Hub, Project Manager, Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Durham College (Moderator)
As the lead for Durham College’s AI and Cybersecurity labs, Ali Hirji has over 14 years of experience working on a variety of technology implementations in the government, academic and not for profit sectors. With a specific interest in broadband communications, Ali has held senior roles in projects to enable remote connectivity, implement technical trainings, bolster cyber security frameworks and enhance access to mission critical applications. He has also taken a lead role in securing funding for over 15 related projects and established numerous public private partnerships. Ali is completing his PhD in communications and holds multiple research and teaching positions.
Deepak Darda - Global Director, Innovation, IBI Group (Keynote)
Deepak Darda, IBI Group – Global Director, Innovation, is an alum of the Harvard Business School with Masters degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Bachelors degree from IIT Bombay. As the head of the Office of Innovation at IBI Group, Deepak is driving the IBI Group’s global strategic initiative of becoming a technology driven design firm (Tech Pivot) through focused efforts on catalyzing core growth, transforming IBI Group’s business models, investigating future disruptions and enhancing innovation. Deepak is also IBI Group’s lead for the Smart City Sandbox, which is an unique partnership initiative between industry leaders to tap the start-up eco system for bringing innovative solutions in Urban environments. Prior to becoming the Global Director for innovation, Deepak built the India office of IBI Group from the ground up into the highly reputed firm that it is today.
Bruce Mori - Director, Sr. Practice Lead, Transportation Planning, IBI Group (Keynote)
Bruce Mori, Director and Senior Practice Lead in Transportation Planning for IBI Group, bringing over 30 years of professional consulting experience across Canada, United States and abroad. He specializes in multimodal and sustainable transportation, encompassing major transportation infrastructure, rapid and public transit systems, new mobility, goods movement and integrated land use and transportation. He has led numerous award-winning studies on transformative and sustainable transportation initiatives, recognizing dramatic technological, socio-economic and land-use changes shaping the cities of the future. This includes over 20 transportation master plans to help municipalities prepare for the long-term future and its uncertainties, including the examination of new mobility/CAVs and their impacts on mobility and land use.
Jason Lee - Founder & CEO, SmartCone Technologies (Presenter)
Jason Lee is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of SmartCone Technologies. Jason has dedicated most of his professional life to developing new technologies that make the world a safer place, with applications in aviation, business intelligence, manufacturing, and software development. From time spent in Kuwait and Afghanistan researching and developing smart safety for military use, he was presented the Challenge Coin for Excellence. His work has spun three award-winning products and has 10 Intellectual property patent clusters.
Jamie Austin - Deputy General Manager, Business Services, Durham Region Transit (Panelist)
Jamie Austin joined Durham Region Transit in 2018 as the Deputy General Manager of Business Services where he provides leadership in the delivery of core business support functions, customer-focused fare and ridership initiatives, and forward-looking innovation and modernization projects. Previously as a Director with the Ministry of Transportation Ontario he led policy development and program delivery on a range of government priorities, including autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, cycling, and high occupancy toll lanes, in addition to transportation planning and operations for the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games. This followed management positions with the Ontario Growth Secretariat and City of Toronto, where over ten years he gained expertise in housing and social policy, community planning and municipal governance. Jamie has a Master’s Degree in Planning from the University of Waterloo and a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography and Urban Studies from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Scott Butler - Executive Director, Ontario Good Roads Association (Panelist)
Scott Butler’s career has been a deliberate and methodical immersion into the world of building better communities. His experiences have touched on immigration, labour markets, agri-food, corporate responsibility, transportation, public finance, infrastructure, governance and correctional services. On August 1, 2020, Scott became the tenth Executive Director in the 127-year history of the Ontario Good Roads Association, one of Canada’s oldest and largest municipal organizations. Through training, advocacy and research, Scott leads a team that has focused on everything roads since 1894. Prior to this, Scott served as OGRA’s government relations lead for 10 years. His previous roles have included being a part-time member of the Ontario Parole Board, establishing the national Corporate Social Responsibility function for a large financial corporation and working in various policy capacities with the Government of Ontario. Away from the office Scott has sat on the Board of a number of community organizations. Most recently, he has proudly served as the chair of the Guelph Public Library during an exciting period of renewal that will culminate in a new $62 M central facility in the heart of the city.
Bern Grush - Co-founder & Chief Innovation Officer, Harmonize Mobility (Panelist)
Bern Grush, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer for Harmonize Mobility, Inc., is a Canadian transportation innovator trained in Human Factors Psychology and Systems Design Engineering from the Universities of Toronto and Waterloo (Ontario), respectively. He brings a unique urban-sensitivity to vehicle automation from both a human-social perspective and a complex-systems perspective. Bern is the principal author of the 2018 textbook “The End of Driving: Transportation Systems and Public Policy Planning for Autonomous Vehicles”. His company has developed a platform for collaboration between Public Transportation and Transportation Service Providers. His most recent work is as the project leader of the ISO project for technical standard 4448: “Sidewalk and kerb operations for automated vehicles”. ISO4448 is intended for the regulation of real-time robotic vehicle operations.
Michael Polowin - Partner, Gowling WLG (Panelist)
Michael Polowin is one of Ontario's leading lawyers in municipal and real property law. An Ottawa-based Gowling WLG partner with more than 30 years' experience, he can provide you with strategic advice and representation in the areas of development, municipal and planning law, and commercial real property, through the full spectrum of the acquisition, financing and development process. He has acted for some of the largest developers in Canada and has been involved in developments throughout Ontario, appearing in Court and at the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal. Michael also has extensive experience in development-related agreements, including subdivision, cost-sharing agreements and expropriation matters. Michael has also acted on real estate and land use issues for companies in the burgeoning cannabis industry. He has been ranked by The Best Lawyers in Canada in the areas of municipal law and real estate, and is named a leading practitioner in the area of property development by the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory. He has also been recognized by Chambers Global Practice Guide for Real Estate: zoning/land use, and is regularly featured in various publications, electronic media and Canadian newspapers, providing commentary on key municipal and planning issues.
Dan Ruby - Sector Manager, Automotive and Mobility Innovation, Ontario Centre of Innovation (Moderator)
Dan Ruby joined OCI in 2016 as a Business Development Manager. In 2019, Dan joined the AVIN team as the Sector Manager for Automotive and Mobility Innovation. In his current role, Dan works with the six AVIN RDTS sites and helps develop and manage projects on behalf of the AVIN R&D funding streams. Dan’s prior role was Economic Development Manager for the City of Vaughan, responsible for the Innovative Research, Development and Design convergence sector. In this capacity, Dan was responsible for leading the development of the Vaughan International Commercialization Centre (VICC) initiative. In his previous role as the Managing Business Consultant for the York Small Business Enterprise Centre, Dan worked with thousands of companies to help them bring their products and services to market, including funding support and business planning. Dan has also started a not-for-profit organization and founded four for-profit companies in his career and he holds an Honours Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto.
Raed Kadri - Head of Ontario's Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network Senior Director, Automotive Technology and Mobility Innovation, Ontario Centre of Innovation (Remarks)
Raed Kadri is Head of the Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN) and Senior Director of Automotive Technology and Mobility Innovation at Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE). In his role, he is responsible for leading AVIN, an initiative by the Government of Ontario which drives economic growth, creates high-quality jobs and strengthens Ontario’s competitive advantage in the automotive, transportation and mobility sector. Raed received his Bachelor of Applied Science (Industrial Engineering) from the University of Windsor, his Master of Science (Industrial Engineering) from Wayne State University in Detroit and his Master of Science (Business and Management Research) from Henley Business School in Henley-on-Thames, U.K. He is currently pursuing his Doctorate in Business Administration from Henley Business School in partnership with Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Cyrus Tehrani - Chief Digital Officer, City of Hamilton (Remarks)
Cyrus is the City of Hamilton’s Chief Digital Officer and his portfolio includes Smart City / Intelligent Communities Initiative, Open Data, Digital Transformation and CityLAB programs. Cyrus has over 20 years experience in senior leadership roles in IT, digital solutions and transformation, quality assurance, process improvement and project management in the health care, manufacturing and education sectors. Cyrus has a degree in Engineering and Management from McMaster University, is a Professional Engineer and Certified Project Management Professional with keen interest digital social equity and all things technology related.
Sherin Abdelhamid - Technical Advisor, Automotive and Mobility Innovation, Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network, Ontario Centre of Innovation (Remarks)
Sherin Abdelhamid is the Technical Advisor on Automotive and Mobility Innovation with the Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN) at Ontario Centre of Innovation. With AVIN, she is leading and managing all aspects of the research and data analysis processes from proposal writing, research design, analysis and interpretation of results, through to developing research studies, technical reports, and market intelligence reports. Prior to joining AVIN, Sherin worked as a research associate and adjunct assistant professor at the School of Computing - Queen’s University, where she received her PhD in 2014. Sherin is a subject-matter expert in connected and autonomous vehicle technologies and mobility innovation and has been named by Automotive News Canada as one of the 2020 Canadians to Watch in the auto industry. She is also experienced in applied artificial intelligence, smart cities, and the Internet of Things. She is an award-winning researcher with more than thirty publications in many top journals, magazines, and conferences.
Richard Dunda - Director, Centre for Integrated Transportation and Mobility, Innovation Factory (EMCEE)
Richard has spent more than 30 years in the software and communications/media industries. More recently, Richard has been immersed in and working with Canada’s start-up, scale-up, and growth companies as an executive, advisor, consultant, mentor, and certified coach. Richard now joins Innovation Factory as the Director at the Centre for Integrated Transportation & Mobility (CITM). Over the course of his career, Richard held a series of engaging and foundational roles – stretching from his beginnings in the PC industry running an start-up in the late ’80s, to 20+ years at Microsoft in a series of roles in North America, to 5 years at Rogers Communications’ as Director of Strategic Partnerships team, and, most recently as President & COO of a technology start-up. Richard credits these roles and, more importantly the people and mentors, with his development of a unique combination of skills, experience, and expertise.
Chris Gillis, P. Eng. - Manager, Applied Research Business Development, Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Durham College (EMCEE)
Chris 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. 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.
Justin Gammage - Manager, Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network Technology Development Site, Durham Region (EMCEE)
Justin Gammage is the Manager for the Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network Technology Development Site in the Durham Region. He also serves as the Industry Liaison Manager for the Vice President of Research and Innovation at Ontario Tech University. In this role he leads the institution’s automotive and transportation industry outreach and creates industry driven research programs with leading faculty and research labs. Among these labs is the Automotive Centre of Excellence (ACE), Canada’s most sophisticated full scale automotive research facility. Prior to joining Ontario Tech in 2015, Justin spent 14 years working in the automotive industry in assignments that included both production, product and validation engineering. More recently, as Chief Scientist for General Motors of Canada, Justin was responsible for developing and managing a broad portfolio of innovation projects with leading experts and faculty from Universities across Canada. He holds a Ph.D. from McMaster University and is a registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario.
