Benjamin Kemball, President and Chief Executive Officer of Imperial Tobacco Canada, took up his current position on February 11, 2005. Since January 2002, he had been the President and Managing Director of Cigarrera Bigott in Venezuela.

Blair works with BDO’s Financial Recovery Services practice, specializing in the refinancing and restructuring of underperforming companies. Blair has over 25 years of insolvency and restructuring related experience, including 18 years as a partner with KPMG’s Transaction Advisory Services practice where he successfully restructured numerous businesses through a combination of opera...

Originally from the Eastern Townships in Quebec, Ben moved to Moncton in 1998 when he was offered a Market Analyst position with Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation.  In 2001, Ben was promoted to Senior Market Analyst for New Brunswick, a position that he held for 4 years. In June 2005, Ben joined the City of Moncton to lead the new Economic Development Office.  In his role as the City’s Busi...

As President of LoyaltyOne (formerly Alliance Data Loyalty Services), Bryan Pearson is responsible for leading the organization’s six loyalty enterprises including: the AIR MILES® Reward Program, North America’s premier coalition loyalty program; COLLOQUY®, a global loyalty marketing publisher; Direct Antidote, a full-service direct marketing agency specializing in data-driven campaigns designe...

Brian Hunt was appointed CEO of the Canadian Public Accountability Board on January 29, 2009. Mr. Hunt was active in CPAB’s creation and served as a Director since its inception. Prior to his current position at CPAB, Mr. Hunt was President and CEO of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario. Prior to his position with the Ontario Institute, Mr. Hunt held numerous executive positions i...

Bruce March is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Imperial Oil Limited and has been a director of Imperial since January 1, 2008.A native of Middleport, New York, Mr. March is a graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology.  He joined Mobil Oil at the Buffalo Refinery as a project engineer in 1980 and advanced through increasingly responsible management assignments in refin...

Brian Lee Crowley has headed up the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) in Ottawa since its inception in March of 2010, coming to the role after a long and distinguished record in the think tank world. He was the founder of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) in Halifax, one of the country’s leading regional think tanks. From 2006-08 Crowley was the Clifford Clark Visiting Econom...

Following a year as the Deputy Head of Mission for Canada’s Embassy in Kabul, Ben Rowswell held the position of Representative of Canada in Kandahar (RoCK) Afghanistan from September 2009 to August 2010. As Canada’s senior civilian in southern Afghanistan, Mr. Rowswell led the Government of Canada’s coordinated diplomatic and reconstruction efforts, in close cooperation with the Canadian Forces...

When he’s not running his union (ACTRA Toronto), chairing the board of his credit union (Creative Arts Savings and Credit Union), attending the board meetings of Film Ontario (the industry association he co-chairs) of ROI Fund (a $1.4 billion venture capital fund) or of Pinewood Toronto Studios (Toronto’s biggest film studio), or doing his work as a long-time volunteer and activist in the NDP...

Boris Nemtsov is a leader of the Russian democratic opposition and a former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. He was born in Sochi, graduated from Gorky State University, and received his Ph.D. in physics. In 1990, Nemtsov was elected to Parliament as a candidate of the anticommunist “Democratic Russia” movement. Between 1991 and 1997, he served as Governor of Nizhny Novgorod region, earning the...

Ben is an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets unit. Ben's current research explores the public and private forces shaping Internet architecture and business opportunities. He has written about the implications of growing market concentration in Internet search and resulting risks for advertisers. Examining the mechanisms that allocat...

Brian Belski is Chief Investment Strategist at BMO Capital Markets. He joined the firm mid-April 2012 and in this role provides in-depth equity portfolio strategy products for the U.S. and Canada. Most recently, Mr. Belski was Chief Investment Strategist at Oppenheimer & Company in New York, where he distributed four proprietary strategy and portfolio strategy publications for institutional ...

Mr. Rhodes gained a reputation for international financial diplomacy in the 1980s as a result of his leadership in helping manage the external-debt crises that involved developing nations and their creditors worldwide. During that period and in the 1990s, he headed the advisory committees of international banks that negotiated debt-restructuring agreements for Argentina, Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico...

With over 25 years of experience in both the public and private sectors, FCM's President, Councillor Berry Vrbanovic of Kitchener, Ontario, has a long history of professional municipal experience and elected community leadership. Initially joining the City of Kitchener as a staff person in 1986, Councillor Vrbanovic was first elected in 1994 and since then has worked tirelessly not only for his...

As President & Chief Executive Officer, Brian is responsible for overall leadership of Cenovus Energy’s strategic and operational performance. He is also a Director of Cenovus Energy. Brian joined a predecessor company in 1984 and became a member of the Management Team in 1994. His business experience includes a variety of areas in finance, business development, reserves, strategic plannin...

On July 1, 2011, Bill McFarland assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer and Senior Partner of PwC Canada. Bill's election as CEO follows an extensive career path with PwC that began in 1980. Bill has been one of two National Managing Partners for the Canadian firm since 2005 as part of the firm's executive. Based in Toronto, he became a partner in 1992 and was the leader of our audit an...

Bruce McCuaig has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of Metrolinx since September 4, 2010. Bruce began his career in public service in 1984, and has worked in areas involving land use planning and policy, municipal policy, and transportation planning, policy and operations over the intervening years. He served in various capacities at the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and...

Blake C. Goldring is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AGF Management Limited, a premier independent investment management company with operations in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia. Named Chairman in 2006, Chief Executive Officer in 2000 and President in 1997, Blake has led the growth of AGF's business, which today manages over $39 billion (C$) in investors' assets globally...

As president, MasterCard Canada, Ms. DeVita oversees all Canadian operations and sits on the global MasterCard operating committee. Committed to furthering MasterCard’s position as the fastest growing payments brand in Canada, Ms. DeVita is dedicated to promoting the advantages of electronic payments, accelerating Canada’s cashless journey and advancing global commerce.

Bruce served as CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada for ten years and prior to that as the organization’s Vice-President of Marketing. Bruce is bilingual, has led major change initiatives and developed long and innovative partnerships with corporations and other charities. Bruce has been active in many organizations, including two YMCAs, the Ontario Senior Games and Kinsmen and Kinette Cl...

Brian Emmett completed undergraduate studies in economics at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Essex in England and did postgraduate work at the University of Western Ontario. Mr. Emmett began his career in the Public Service with Environment Canada in 1973, in the Office of the Science Advisor. From 1979 to 1...

Long before “social networking” became a buzzword, Bruce Croxon made his mark as a digital pioneer by co-founding Lavalife in 1987 and revolutionizing how people connect. Under his direction, he grew this early tech start-up into the marquee brand in online dating with over two million users. Partner, chairman and CEO, Croxon helped lead the company’s growth from four to 600 employees, and achi...

Ms. Goulard was appointed Deputy Commissioner on March 17, 2014. Before joining the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, Ms. Goulard was the Vice-President, Policy and Government Relations, for the Credit Union Central of Canada. An experienced policy professional in the Canadian financial services industry, Ms. Goulard has been employed in legal and policy roles with several industry asso...

Bruce Lazenby is President & CEO of Invest Ottawa. He was Chairman of the Ottawa Software Cluster; Vice President in Canada for Corum Group Ltd., an M&A advisory firm and CEO of FreeBalance Inc., raising funds for venture capital and debt financing. A graduate of Royal Military College, Bruce served in Department of National Defense as a Logistics Officer and Navy Diver. He speaks at know...

Bert was appointed a Vice President at First Air in November 2013. He is responsible for all commercial activities on a day-to-day basis as well as the strategy development and restructuring of the airline. He has a strong track record built up with 16 years in the industry with extensive airline turnaround experience and airline commercial management responsibility in various parts of the worl...

Brian Walsh cofounded Saguenay Capital in 2002 to manage alternative portfolios for a client base of international institutions and family offices. Walsh has over 30 years’ experience in investment banking, international capital markets and investment management. He had a long career at Bankers Trust that culminated in his appointment as cohead of the Global Investment Bank. Prior to that, Wals...

Bill Morris leads Accenture in Canada. He was appointed to this role effective June 1, 2014 and is based in Toronto. Previously, from 2011 to 2014, Bill led Accenture’s North America Resources operating unit. In this role, he was responsible for clients in the oil and gas, power, chemicals and natural resources industries. Bill managed the expansion of Accenture’s Digital business within th...

Joined Woodfibre Natural Gas Limited (part of the Pacific Oil & Gas group) in April 2013 as the company’s first North American employee. Immediately prior he was with a large Canadian copper/gold mining company. Byng is responsible for corporate affairs including regulatory affairs, government relations, community relations, aboriginal affairs and communications. He is also currently Chairma...

Bob is a partner in the Calgary-based energy technology commercialization partnership called PURE Reserve. Until February 2015, Bob had been the Senior Director, Innovating for Sustainability in the Oil Sands Business Unit of ConocoPhillips Canada (CPC). When he joined CPC in 2007, Bob co-founded the Oil Sands Leadership Initiative (OSLI) and co-chaired its management committee for 5 years....

Brian Jean was elected Leader of the Wildrose Party on March 28th, 2015. He is currently running to be the MLA for the riding of Fort McMurray – Conklin. Brian is a businessman, a lawyer and for 10 years he was a dedicated MP in Stephen Harper's Conservative government. Besides real world business and government experience, Brian has been active in his community chairing many senior roles in...

Brenda Kenny is President and CEO of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA) where she works with industry partners and key stakeholders to advance pipeline safety, operating excellence and sound policy. Leadership in outreach and collaboration to solve problems and implement solutions is central to her role at CEPA. Brenda has extensive experience in energy regulation, sustainability a...

As President & Chief Executive Officer, Brian is accountable for overall leadership of Cenovus Energy’s strategic and operational performance. He is also a Director of Cenovus Energy. Brian joined a predecessor company in 1984 and became a member of the Management Team in 1994. His business experience includes a variety of areas in finance, business development, reserves, strategic plann...

Brent Diverty is the Vice President of Programs at CIHI. He has executive responsibility for CIHI’s range of health services, expenditure and workforce data holdings and many of the standard information products that flow from them. Prior to re-joining CIHI in February 2013, Mr. Diverty spent two years at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in Canberra, where he provided strategic le...

Professor Bonnie Patterson is the President and CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities (COU), a post she has held since September 2009. She was the President and Vice-Chancellor of Trent University from 1998 to 2009. She has served previously as President of COU from 1995 to 1998, as Dean of Business at Ryerson University (then Ryerson Polytechnic Institute), and chaired and taught at Ryers...

Bruce Heyman was confirmed as President Obama’s personal representative to Canada on March 12, 2014. He is a 33 year veteran of Goldman Sachs, where he served as the managing director of the Private Wealth Management Group from 1999 until December of 2013. Mr. Heyman has served as a board member for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Foundation....

Beata Caranci is the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for TD Bank Group. She leads three economic teams that deliver forecasts, presentations, and research for TD clients, regulatory requirements across Canada and the U.S., and a team that supports TD's ESG objectives. Beata serves on several committees, including the C.D Howe's Monetary Policy Council and the American Bankers Econ...

Brittany Forsyth is the Senior Vice President of Human Relations at Shopify and has been in this role since 2014. She has been with the company since 2010 and previously served as the Director of HR. Brittany is actively involved with a number of HR organizations across North America. Brittany obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Carleton University.

Brian Gallant is New Brunswick’s 33rd Premier. At age 32, he is the youngest elected premier in Canada in the last two centuries.

Bill Morneau is Canada’s Minister of Finance and has been in that role since 2015. He is the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre, and an accomplished business leader. As Canada’s Minister of Finance, Bill has played a key role in shaping government policy and initiatives, including the introduction of the Canada Child Benefit, tax cuts for the middle class and small businesses, and the n...

As Chief Economist for Canada’s Charitable and Nonprofit Sector, Brian Emmett is tasked with measuring the impact of the sector and bringing economic issues facing charities and nonprofits to the forefront of public policy decision makers. Mr. Emmett is an economics graduate of the University of Western Ontario and the University of Essex in England, and has enjoyed a long and distinguished p...

Bharat Masrani was appointed Group President and Chief Executive Officer of TD Bank Group on November 1, 2014. Bharat has more than 30 years of banking experience and is a member of the TD Bank Group Board of Directors. He most recently served as Chief Operating Officer for TD Bank Group from July 2013.

Ms. Bronwen Evans is a Founding Director and CEO of the True Patriot Love Foundation (TPL), which has been raising record funds to support military families through its signature Tribute Dinners since its inception in 2009. Under her leadership since 2012, TPL has successfully spearheaded Expeditions to the Himalayas, North Pole and Antarctica, partnering prominent business leaders with wounded...

Brendan is the Chief Executive Officer of Privateer Holdings which carries three major cannabis companies in its portfolio: Leafly, Marley Natural and Tilray.

Brian is an alumnus of Brandon University, with degrees in arts and education. From 1976 to 1979, he taught social studies at William Morton Collegiate in Gladstone, Manitoba. In 1980, he became a chartered financial consultant and started a financial services company that grew into Pallister Financial.

Bonnie Johnston has dedicated her career to serving children and families. She currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre, a position she has held since November 2012. Bonnie began her career as a nurse in an Aboriginal community in northern Alberta and later had a variety of increasingly responsible roles in the health care field in Edmonto...

Bruce Williamson is the Vice President, Sales and Marketing at Janssen Canada and a member of the company’s Leadership Team. He oversees all aspects of the go-to-market approach and strategy for medicines within Oncology, Psychiatry and Cardiovascular & Metabolics. In addition to his commercial responsibilities, Bruce leads the Janssen Training & Development function, New Business Development ...

Bindu Cudjoe is Vice President, Deputy General Counsel - T&O Legal and Chief Knowledge Officer of the legal, compliance and security groups at BMO Financial Group (BMO). She is be accountable for managing legal and regulatory risk relating to technology, procurement, outsourcing, intellectual property and enterprise brand, marketing and social media. Additionally, she is responsible for knowle...

Benoit Daignault joined EDC in 2004. Prior to his appointment as President and CEO in February of 2014, he served as Senior Vice-President, Financing and Investments after serving as Senior VicePresident, Business Development. Before joining EDC, Mr. Daignault spent more than 10 years with General Electric Capital, where he held increasingly senior positions in both Canada and the U.S. ...

As the President & Chief Executive Officer of Sotheby's International Realty Canada, Brad brings over 30 years of diverse business experience to the team. Brad is regularly sought out by local, national and international newspapers and magazines and is a frequent guest on BNN TV as a real estate commentator. Brad began his career in real estate and has held senior executive roles at CBRE and...

FOUNDER & FORMER CHAIRMAN, CEO AND CO-CEO OF CANOPY GROWTH CORPORATION (CGC) FORMERLY TWEED MARIJUANA INCORPORATED, A CANNABIS COMPANY BASED IN SMITHS FALLS, ONTARIO, CANADA. BRUCE FOUNDED TWEED IN 2013 AND RENAMED IT CANOPY GROWTH CORPORATION IN 2015. CANOPY GROWTH CORPORATION WAS THE FIRST CANNABIS COMPANY IN NORTH AMERICA TO BE LISTED ON A MAJOR STOCK EXCHANGE (TSX-V IN APRIL 2014 AND TSX IN...

Brian Hilberdink is the President of Novo Nordisk Canada. His 22-year career includes several years at the company’s headquarters in Denmark in the Global Marketing organisation, in addition to a variety of roles with Novo Nordisk in the U.S. Brian is an active contributor on the Board of Innovative Medicines Canada and BIOTECanada, and is also a founding member of the Diabetes Canada Impact C...

Barb Collins was appointed the President & CEO of Humber River Hospital in Toronto, Canada, on July 1, 2016. Ms. Collins is a Registered Nurse, with an MBA from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. She has more than 35 years’ experience as a manager and director of all major clinical and support areas of an acute care hospital.

Brian A. Gallagher is President and Chief Executive Officer of United Way Worldwide, the world’s largest privately-funded nonprofit. Gallagher is a regular contributor to a number of high-profile global discussions, including the World Economic Forum (WEF). He frequently speaks about critical issues ranging from sustainable growth in emerging economies to the ability of public/private partn...

Bianca Wylie is a CIGI senior fellow. Her main areas of interest are procurement and public sector technology. Beyond her role at CIGI, Bianca leads work on public sector technology policy for Canada at Dgen Network and is the co-founder of Tech Reset Canada. Her work at CIGI focuses on examining Canadian data and technology policy decisions and their alignment with democratically informed poli...

Bonnie is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Security Partners' Forum (SPF), the 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/groups globally)...

Brent J. Arnold is a partner practising in Gowling WLG's advocacy department, specializing in commercial litigation and arbitration. Brent heads the firmís Commercial Litigation Technology Sub-group. He also leads cybersecurity initiatives for the firmís Financial Services Regulatory Group, and is a member of its Insurtech Group and its Innovation Council.

Buffy Sainte-Marie is touring constantly, and coming off her critically acclaimed, award-winning 2015 album Power in the Blood, nobody could ever accuse the Academy Award-winning songwriter of taking it easy. Since her groundbreaking debut, 1964’s It’s My Way!, the Cree singer-songwriter has been a trailblazer and a tireless advocate, an innovative artist, and a disruptor of the status quo. ...

Benji is VP and COO (Layer 6 AI), TD Bank Group following the acquisition of Layer 6 by TD in January 2018. Benji Sucher also invests through Radical Ventures, an early-stage AI‐focused VC fund. Prior to joining Layer 6, Benji was a VP of M&A and Integration at Constellation Software (TSX:CSU). At Constellation, he was responsible for acquiring, integrating and growing companies around the worl...

Brent Chamberlain is a Senior Director with CIBC’s talent management team and leads the group responsible for implementing the bank’s global inclusion and diversity strategy. He previously led diversity for Bell and has held several non-profit leadership roles including Executive Director of Pride at Work Canada. Brent holds degrees from the London School of Economics and McGill University.

Brian Dijkema is Program Director, Work and Economics at Cardus and senior editor with Comment. Prior to joining Cardus, Brian worked for almost a decade in labour relations in Canada. He also had the privilege of advocating for international human rights, with a focus on labour rights and independent unionism, in Latin America and China.

Since first being elected as Mayor in 2014, Mayor Crombie has worked diligently to hold the line on taxes, invested in improving traffic congestion and building transit, attracted major economic development to the City all while managing the growth of Canada’s sixth largest city. Prior to being elected as Mayor, Bonnie served as the Ward 5 City Councillor, and previous to that, as Member ...

Bridget is the co-founder of Marigold Marketing & PR and Canndora, a cannabis lifestyle brand and community for women. She is a communications strategist and brand expert. She has extensive experience in delivering integrated communications, marketing, and brand programs that achieve results and resonate in the cannabis, media and social good sectors. From 2000 to 2014, Bridget was the Exe...

Brian Lang is the President of Mastercard in Canada. In this role, he oversees all aspects of the company’s regional strategy and operations, with a mandate for continued growth and accelerated innovation. Brian is focused on advancing Canada’s position as the world leader in digitally connected commerce, and strengthening Mastercard’s position as the fastest growing payments brand in Canad...

Bill Walker is a third-term Member of Provincial Parliament for Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound. He was re-elected to the Ontario Legislature on June 7, 2018, capturing 55 per cent of the popular vote to retain his seat in Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound. From June until November 2018, he served as the Chief Government Whip. On November 5 he was appointed to Cabinet as Minister of Government and Consumer S...

Blake is the President and Chief Pension Officer of OMERS and Chairperson of Oxford Properties. Prior to that Blake was the Chief Investment Officer of Real Estate and Platform Investments at OMERS. He was also President & CEO of Oxford Properties Group since 2010 where he was responsible for overseeing the global business, consisting of approximately $60 billion of assets under management an...

Bernard Lord became Chief Executive Officer of Medavie in September 2016 to provide strategic leadership to further the company’s mission to improve the wellbeing of Canadians. Prior to this role, he spent eight years on the Board of Medavie and was President and CEO of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunication Association of Canada. He sits on boards of several companies and organizations, and w...

Bryan Cox is the President and CEO of the BC LNG Alliance. As the leading voice and advocate for the LNG industry in BC, Bryan leads a team actively working with governments, business leaders, First Nations, communities, and the broader public to seize BC’s opportunity to build a world-leading LNG industry for the benefit of all British Columbians and Canadians. Prior to joining the Allianc...

Béatrice Clerc joined Novo Nordisk Canada Inc. as President in September 2019. Most recently, Ms. Clerc was Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Novo Nordisk France, where she demonstrated her leadership by improving patient access to innovative medicines and overseeing the launch of several new therapies during her tenure. She first joined Novo Nordisk's French affiliate in 2008 as ...

Bryan Borzykowski is an award-winning journalist and the founder and editorial director of ALLCAPS Content, an agency that works with finance and healthcare organizations to create consumer-quality branded content and communications. Bryan's work has appeared in the New York Times, CNBC, Wired, Washington Post, BBC Capital, MoneySense, the Globe and Mail and numerous other publications. He also...

Bill VanGorder is Chief Policy Officer and Chief Operating Officer for C.A.R.P - A New Vision of Aging for Canada and was the Founding Chair (2007) He is the immediate Past Chair of the Nova Scotia Advisory Committee on Seniors’ Issues to the Provincial Government (The Group of Nine) on which he has served for the past 14 years; Chair of the Serving Seniors Alliance Cooperative and longtime...

Barbara Ward-Burkitt, Wahiyow Cawapata Scoo, is a member of the Fort McKay First Nation and is currently the Executive Director of the Prince George Native Friendship Centre, the largest Friendship Centre of 117 Friendship Centres across Canada. She has been actively connected in many capacities in the Friendship Centre movement for 49 years.

Bryan Cox is the President and CEO of the Canadian LNG Alliance. As the leading voice and advocate for the LNG industry in Canada, Bryan leads a team actively working with governments, business leaders, Indigenous leaders, communities, and the broader public to realize the opportunity to build a world-leading LNG industry for the benefit of all Canadians. In 2020, Bryan led the evolution of the...