Norman Wilhelm, is a licensed private investigator with over 20 years of experience in open source intelligence and online investigations. He is a highly decorated and accomplished former member of Canadian military intelligence, who later worked in the human resource management industry. For the last seven years he has been a private investigator with one of Canada’s largest private investigation companies, specializing in online investigations. Many of his report results, numbering over 800 in the last seven years, were used in insurance claims, civil cases, family law cases, and class action suits. In November 2013, he was recognized by the Supreme Court of British Columbia as an expert in open source intelligence and online investigations.

Gary Beyer, Co Owner of Tesseract 2.0 Computing, has been an avid fan of technology for more than 30 years. His latest Venture, the third Iteration of Tesseract here in Victoria, come as a result of frustrations in not finding a company to work with that provided the level of care and service that the original Tesseract did.

Gary grew up in the Victoria area and has in the past been involved with community organizations including the board of St Andrews Elementary School and langfor Fastball. Currently Gary sits on the Advisory Board of The Victoria HarbourCats.

Alan Perry hosts “Tech Talk”, a live two-hour technology-focused talkshow which airs from 10am to Noon each Saturday morning on C-FAX 1070 Radio. He also regularly produces and fills-in as host of other C-FAX talkshows.

Alan co-hosts in-store tech workshops in London Drugs stores, where he shows us how to choose and use computers, tablets, smartphones, printers, and other gear, and how to stay safe online.

Alan is also now an “eGuru” – which means he makes house calls as part of eGurus Technology Tutors, to show us how to get the most out of our computers, tablets and other tech gear.

Alan has been on the air at C-FAX 1070 in one role or another since 1971, when he started as a volunteer student reporter.

His 34 news awards include three gold medals from the Canadian Association of Broadcasters — for his coverage of the 1994 Commonwealth Games, the Blizzard of ’96, and the inaugural Cops For Cancer “Tour de Rock”.

He’s also Project Coordinator for the CRD Traffic Safety Commission, Director Emeritus at Bike To Work Victoria, an honourary Victoria Firefighter, and a Director of the Vic High Alumni Association.

Ainslie Avery has worked with the Privacy Investigations and Compliance Unit since 2013, and has almost ten years of experience with various provincial government agencies and ministries. Ainslie’s primary responsibilities include managing complex, high profile privacy breach and privacy complaint investigations, including investigations into inappropriate conduct with regard to information management, as well as training provincial Privacy Investigators and government staff in privacy incident response and management. Ainslie’s first exposure to privacy and information management came during an internship with the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, Egypt, in which the protection of privacy and the management of information was essential to protecting the health and safety of vulnerable refugees. Ainslie holds an MA from the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Luke Dupuis is a Privacy Advisor and Investigator with the Privacy, Compliance and Training Branch (Ministry of Finance). Luke has worked for the Privacy Investigations and Compliance Unit since 2014, and leads investigations into actual or suspected privacy breaches. In addition, Luke has a BA in History and Education from the University of Victoria, and has taught as a high school teacher in Victoria, BC and Fort McMurray, AB.

Benazeer Daruwalla is Senior Security Architect with IBM Security Business Unit. Based out of Calgary, Benazeer has been a practicing IT professional for more than 17 years now. As a trusted advisor to her clients, she uses forward looking, consultative, business risk-focused approaches to addressing Cyber Threats. Besides facilitating security strategies, assessments, road mapping, business risk reviews for IBM clients ( in various industries) across North America, she is also an active member of IBM Security Architect community and has participated as a guest speaker and SME at various security events in Canada.

Dom Kapac is a Security Analyst with the Health Information Privacy, Security and Legislation branch of the Ministry of Health. Previous to that, Dom has worked for BC Assessment as a Technical Analyst – Security. Dom has worked with computers since he was very young and is well versed in the “guts” of many systems, especially Linux.

Gary Perkins is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the Government of British Columbia.  As the Executive Director of the Information Security Branch, Perkins is responsible for providing cybersecurity services in support of the province.  He has more than 18 years of experience in information technology, risk management and cybersecurity. Prior to joining the BC Government, Perkins worked in the private sector as chief of staff for security at TELUS and, earlier in his career, led teams responsible for incident response, operations, delivery and architecture for both corporate and managed security services customers.  A CISSP since 2004, Perkins also holds an MBA from Simon Fraser University’s Management of Technology program.

Rhianna Begley is the Acting Director of Strategic Privacy in the BC government’s privacy branch. Rhianna has a number of years’ experience as a privacy professional, with a focus on strategic initiatives including information sharing, de-identification and cloud. She brings a collaborative approach to the public bodies she works with, believing that the balance between program provision and respect for privacy is a worthwhile and achievable endeavor.

David Padgett is a Senior Auditor with the Privacy, Compliance and Training Branch (Ministry of Citizens’ Services). David manages the government’s privacy and information awareness training and delivers in-person training sessions to government, the broader public sector and the private sector. David has also been involved in the development of corporate privacy policy and messaging, and helped develop the privacy portions of the BC Services Card.

In addition, David has an MA in Conflict, Security and Development from King’s College London and a BA in History and Politics from the University of Sussex, both from his native UK.

Gerry Bliss provides privacy advisory and mentoring services to a spectrum of organizations. He has set and lead the privacy agenda in provincial and national eHealth projects and applied privacy, security, and information governance expertise to the risk management needs of large organizations in Canada and the US. Past CISO of the Calgary Health Region, co-author of the original “Guidelines for the Protection of Health Information” he is a past president of ISACA Victoria, teaches at UVic, and is currently leading the development and deployment of web based SCORM compliant privacy and security education.

Drew was formerly Vice President Corporate Affairs and Chief Compliance Officer for TELUS Communications, Canada’s second largest telecommunications provider. As Chief Compliance Officer, Drew was responsible for legal and regulatory compliance for all of TELUS’ operations, reporting to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors. A major part of the Chief Compliance Officer role for TELUS was that of Privacy Officer. Drew was accountable for the development and implementation of TELUS’ privacy policy, which has been independently recognized as an industry-leading policy. As part of his Privacy Officer role, Drew was involved in fostering a greater understanding of the practical applications of Canada’s private sector privacy legislation. He was a founding member of the Canadian Council of Chief Privacy Officers operating in conjunction with the Conference Board of Canada, and was a long-standing member of their executive committee. In 2004 Drew founded a cross-industry networking association in British Columbia, to assist privacy practitioners in B.C. with understanding the implications of private sector privacy legislation. In 2006 Drew worked with the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), an international organization dedicated to privacy education, to develop the Canadian professional certification program, and was the first individual to achieve the designation of Certified International Privacy Professional of Canada (CIPP/C). In 2007 Drew founded The McArthur Consulting Group and is working with a variety of clients assisting them with strategic initiatives, policy development and practical solutions for managing their business. He is currently assisting the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia by serving on her external advisory committee.

Amrik Virk was appointed as Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services on December 18, 2014. Previously he served as Minister of Advanced Education from June 2013, after being elected as MLA in the riding of Surrey-Tynehead in the 2013 Provincial General Election.

Born in India, Virk moved with his family to Williams Lake, B.C. when he was five years old.

After the completion of a Bachelor of Arts Degree majoring in Economics and History at Simon Fraser University, Virk joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1987. After an extensive career in a variety of policing roles including sharpshooter with Emergency Response Teams, he retired at the rank of inspector in 2013. Virk is a recipient of two bravery awards, including a Commissioner’s Commendation, as well as The Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and The Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal.

Virk also spent six years on the board of directors of the Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation and served on the board of Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Virk lives in Surrey with his wife Jatinder. They have been married for more than 25 years and have three daughters.

Richard Thieme is an author and professional speaker focused on the challenges posed by new technologies and the future, how to redesign ourselves to meet these challenges, and creativity in response to radical change, including “identify shift.” His column, “Islands in the Clickstream,” was distributed to subscribers in sixty countries before collection as a book in 2004. When a friend at the National Security Agency said after they worked together on ethics and intelligence issues, “The only way you can tell the truth is through fiction,” he returned to writing short stories, 19 of which are collected in “Mind Games.” A novel FOAM was published by Exurban Press in September 2015. He is also co-author of the critically extolled “UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry,” a 5-year research project using material exclusively from government documents and other primary sources, now in 65 university libraries

His work has been taught at universities in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States, and he has guest lectured at numerous universities, including Purdue University (CERIAS), the Technology, Literacy and Culture Distinguished Speakers Series of the University of Texas, the “Design Matters” lecture series at the University of Calgary, and as a Distinguished Lecturer in Telecommunications Systems at Murray State University. He addressed the reinvention of “Europe” as a “cognitive artifact” for curators and artists at Museum Sztuki in Lodz, Poland, keynoted CONFidence in Krakow 2015, and keynoted “The Real Truth: A World’s Fair” at Raven Row Gallery, London, He recently keynoted Code Blue in Tokyo. He has spoken for the National Security Agency, the FBI, the Secret Service, the US Department of the Treasury, and Los Alamos National Labs and has keynoted “hacker,”security, and technology conferences around the world. He spoke in 2015 at Def Con for the 20^th year.

John Wheeler has more than 20 years in the IT software and services industry, and 17 years of specialization in information security. He is currently the Director of worldwide Services Strategy, Offerings and Alliances for IBM Security, responsible for IBM’s portfolio of Consulting, Systems Integration and Managed Security Services. Prior to this role, John led the Managed Security Services business for IBM, overseeing a global practice of security professionals and a network of 10 security operations centers that managed over 26 billion security events each day to protect thousands of customers and tens of thousands of security devices.

Mr. Wheeler has extensive experience working with enterprises, governments and institutions around the world designing, deploying and managing their security programs and implementing modernized solutions to address evolving security threats. Mr. Wheeler joined IBM in 2006 through its acquisition of Internet Security Systems where he held executive positions, leading the company’s rapid growth in security products and services. John is a frequent speaker at security shows, an advisor to C-level executives in corporations around the world, and he enjoys spending time with clients and partners to help strategize solutions that address sophisticated and complex security challenges. When he isn’t fighting cyber threats, John lives in Atlanta, GA with his family and enjoys photography, cycling, cooking and community involvement.

Robert Masse joined Deloitte Canada in May 2015 as a national partner in the Enterprise Risk Services practice. With over 20 years of experience in various disciplines of cyber security, he has built a reputation as a pragmatic security executive who can communicate at both the executive and technical levels.

Rob advises clients on operational security and security strategy, but also spends a significant amount of his time helping large, complex organizations respond to cyber threats and breaches. Over the past decade he has been engaged in many of the most high-profile security breaches impacting organizations globally. He is also a pioneer in the field of offensive cyber security, which is enabling organizations to proactively mitigate cyber-security threats before they materialize into breaches.

Through his extensive experience, Rob has gained tremendous insight into the motivations, techniques and strategies of advanced threat actors, including organized crime and state-sponsored organizations. He utilizes this knowledge to advise clients on becoming secure, resilient and vigilant against cyber risks.

On a more technical front, Robert has deep knowledge in assessing the operational security of organizations through penetration testing and red teaming.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Robert built and led the Canadian division of Mandiant.

Alex Loffler is a certified ethical hacker & licensed penetration tester. He has over 20 years of experience in architecting software and security solutions in the Telco & Security space, with 10 years focused on long-term research at British Telecom’s Adastral Park research facility. Alex has a PHD in Cognitive Science from the University of Sheffield, and a Master’s degree in Telecommunications from University College in London, England.  He holds several patents in the U.S. and Europe, and has been working on the application of machine learning techniques to large-scale datasets.

Colin Bennett received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Wales, and his Ph.D from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 1986 he has taught in the Department of Political Science at the University of Victoria, where he is now Professor. From 1999-2000, he was a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In 2007 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Society at University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, he was Visiting Professor at the School of Law, University of New South Wales. His research has focused on the comparative analysis of surveillance technologies and privacy protection policies at the domestic and international levels. In addition to numerous scholarly and newspaper articles, he has published six books, including The Privacy Advocates: Resisting the Spread of Surveillance (The MIT Press, 2008), and policy reports on privacy protection for Canadian and international agencies. He is currently the co-investigator of a large Major Collaborative Research Initiative grant entitled “The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting.”

Jay is the founder and principal of Rouleur Privacy Consulting, a Vancouver based consulting firm that provides privacy and information management advice and training to both public bodies and private organizations.  Jay is a past Board member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) Advisory Board (Canada) and is a present member of their teaching faculty.  Prior to launching Rouleur, Jay was responsible for the privacy and information access program at the Insurance Corporation Of BC.

Gonzalo Tudela is CEO and Co-founder of Vandrico Solutions, an enterprise wearables software company based in Vancouver Canada. 

With a background in Finance and Mining Operations, Gonzalo is an early champion of the positive impact wearable technology will have on large commercial operations. 

His insights have been featured in publications such as the Globe and Mail, TechCrunch and Entrepreneur Magazine.

Gonzalo is also a TEDx speaker and regularly presents to business leaders across the world. Most notably, his expertise has been televised to millions of viewers on the Globo TV network internationally.

Gonzalo leads the Vandrico team to help large global organizations use wearable technology as a way to overcome safety and operational challenges.

John Jacobson was appointed Deputy Minister, Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services, Province of B.C., on June 10, 2013. He comes to government from the BC Innovation Council (BCIC) where he held the position of President and CEO. John is a seasoned British Columbian entrepreneur and business leader with a track record of identifying new business opportunities and bringing innovative products to market. He got his start as an entrepreneur as the co-founder of a manufacturing company in North Vancouver in 1979 and he hasn’t looked back since. Prior to joining BCIC, John was President and Chief Executive Officer of Monexa Technologies Inc., where he led the transformation of the pioneering internet service provider from the 1990’s into a leader in billing and payment services in the cloud. Before Monexa, John held leadership roles at Offshore Systems International (OSI Geospatial), MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates and PSC Group.

Paul has more than 25 years international experience in Information Technology, Privacy, Security, and Risk Management and an acknowledged expert in North American, Canadian, and European security and privacy practices. He is Executive Consultant for IBM Canada’s Security Services Practice and IBM North America Healthcare Security Leader. Paul has completed projects in many sectors with very strong experience in Healthcare. Areas of technical expertise include privacy assessment/audit, threat/risk assessment, security and privacy management, compliance, project management, realizing the benefits of new technology initiatives and, use of data protection technologies.

Paul is a certified information systems security professional (CISSP), certified information privacy professional (Canadian body of knowledge – CIPP/C and IT body of knowledge CIPT), a BSi trained ISO17799/27002/27799 implementer and ISO27002 lead auditor. Paul is an Canadian advisory board member for the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

Jogi Nijjar is Program Manager for TIBCO Software, guiding technical implementations for Clients throughout Canada and the United States. He has led Big Data software development and enterprise service delivery teams for the last 20 years and as a result, he is passionate about companies leveraging the right technology in the right way. He has held many roles, working with many different technologies but it was in his role as Assistant Director (Registration, Inquiry & Discipline) for the College of Registered Nurses of BC that he truly appreciated how technology was crucial in areas where trust, security and sensitivity to data was paramount. A great believer in experience intersecting education, Jogi is a certified PMI Project Manager, PROSCI Change Manager, and holds an MBA from Queens University, Kingston, Ontario. 

Micheal Vonn is a lawyer and has been the Policy Director of the BCCLA since 2004. She has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in the Faculty of Law and in the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies where she has taught civil liberties and information ethics. She is a regular guest instructor for UBC’s College of Health Disciplines Interdisciplinary Elective in HIV/AIDS Care. She was honoured as a recipient of the 2010 AccolAIDS award and the 2015 Red Ribbon Award for her contributions to the HIV movement and also received the 2015 Keith Sacré Library Champion Award for support, guidance and assistance given to the BC library community. Her publication credits include the Birkbeck Law Review, Surveillance and Society, Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law, and Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law. Ms. Vonn is a frequent speaker on a variety of civil liberties topics including privacy, national security, policing, surveillance and free speech. She is an Advisory Board Member of Privacy International.

Michael McEvoy is Deputy Commissioner for the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia (OIPC).

Prior to this appointment, he served as Assistant Commissioner and as Senior Adjudicator.

Before joining the Office he acted as legal counsel to the Labour Relations Board, practiced law in the private sector and was also an advisor to the Attorney General of British Columbia.

Mr. McEvoy’s community service has included Chair of the Greater Victoria Board, serving as President of the BC Trustees Association and the Canadian School Boards Association. He is a past Campaign Chair of the United Way of Greater Victoria.

He is married with two daughters, is a road bike enthusiast and continues to have dreams of glory as a hockey player with the Victoria Grey Leafs old-timers.

Jessie Adcock is a technology, marketing and digital professional who been employed globally within the high-tech sector since 1998. She is currently Chief Digital Officer for the City of Vancouver. She came to the City from a global financial institution, where she held a series of progressively senior roles in marketing and IT, with responsibilities for developing and implementing global digital strategy, application development and online service delivery for consumer and business markets.

Prior to her experience in the financial services sector, Jessie spent several years in the telecoms industry, providing IT and e-commerce related management consulting and project management services globally.   Jessie has worked extensively overseas and speaks four languages. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and an MBA, as well as formal certifications in project management and product management.

As Oracle’s Vice President of Global Public policy, Mr. Alhadeff is responsible for coordinating and managing Oracle’s international and Internet-related policy issues.As Chief Privacy Strategist, Mr. Alhadeff oversees Oracle’s strategic planning and advocacy related to privacy, personal information protection and management across all Oracle operations and product areas as well as global fora.In addition to his role at Oracle, Mr. Alhadeff serves a prominent role in several influential international organizations dedicated to Internet policy, security and privacy. Mr Alhadeff serves as the BIAC Chair to the OECD ICCP Committee, head of industry delegation to the OECD Security Steering Group, and a Vice Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Digital Economy Committee. In the EU, Mr. Alhadeff serves as Chair of the Data Protection, Governance and Identity Management working group of the EU Expert Group on Cloud Computing. In the US, Mr. Alhadeff chairs the Digital Economy Committee for the US India Business Council, co-chairs EABC’s Information Governance working group and is Vice Chair of USCIB’s Information Policy Committee. Mr. Alhadeff is also the Chair of the US ASEAN’s Malaysia Committee, Vice-Chair of the US-ASEAN Business Council’s Technology Committee and serves on the NCAPEC Board. Mr Alhadeff also serves on the advisory boards of the Digital Security Council of India, and Wiredkids.org.Prior to joining Oracle, Mr. Alhadeff was General Counsel and Vice President for Electronic Commerce for the US Council for International Business (USCIB) in New York. Mr. Alhadeff holds an M.B.A. in management and information systems from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, and a B.A. from Oberlin College.

Dr Peter Williams specializes in Smarter Cities, with special reference to resilience and citizen engagement; and cloud computing for government. He has had a major role in developing the intellectual foundation for IBM’s “Smarter Planet” and “Smarter Cities” initiatives, and in identifying and integrating their technological components – both IBM-originated and from outside the company. He is currently engaged in helping to define IBM’s “Government as a Platform” (GaaP) positioning and solutions.

Dr Williams holds the title of IBM Distinguished Engineer, and is also a visiting lecturer on Smarter Cities and Communities at Stanford University. By background, he is a strategy and change consultant with well over 20 years’ experience of bringing technology and business issues together to develop novel solutions and business models. He holds or co-holds, or has pending, 9 US patents. A native of the UK, he has lived in California since 1999, and is married with three children. His PhD was awarded by the School of Management at the University of Bath, England, in 1986.

Chantal Bernier is a member of both Dentons’ Canadian Privacy and Cybersecurity practice group and of the Firm’s Government Affairs and Public Policy group. As Assistant and Interim Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Chantal led national and international privacy investigations in the public and private sectors, as well privacy audits, privacy impact assessment reviews, technological analysis, and privacy policy development and research.

Chantal leverages her years in high-ranking positions at the Government of Canada to provide clients with strategic counsel. She is also a member of Statistics Canada’s Advisory Council on the Modernization of Microdata Data Access and of the Standards Council of Canada’s Steering Committee on Canadian Data Governance Standardization Collaborative.

Greg is responsible for the strategic direction, client relationships and operational management of IBM’s Security business in Canada. In this capacity, Greg holds accountability for the overall signings, revenue, profit and client satisfaction of IBM’s market leading Security products, services and solutions. His team of over 200 Canadian professionals are responsible for selling, supporting and delivering Security software, systems, consulting and managed services to clients across the country.

Greg has more than seventeen years of sales, executive and management experience with the IBM Corporation. In his current capacity he serves as a Senior Leader in both the Canadian and North American Management teams. Greg’s experience includes roles which have focused on business development, delivery and client satisfaction across a variety of industries, in a number of different professional capacities. Selected prior Executive responsibilities have included: managing IBM’s overall relationship with a Large Canadian Telecommunications Client; the Shared Services Leader for IBM’s Canadian Global Technology Services business; and, the Chief of Staff for IBM’s General Manager of Global Technology Services North America. Greg was also part of the team that managed IBM’s relationship with the Government of Ontario for five years.

Greg is active in his community and is currently a member of the board for ITAC’s Ontario Chapter.

Greg holds an Honors Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queens University and has received IBM Management training, including IBM’s Client Executive certification from the Harvard Business School. He has also completed an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge in Malaga, Spain, which focused on stimulating entrepreneurship and economic development for that region.

Greg is married with a daughter and two sons and lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Michael de Jong was re-elected in 2013 as the MLA for Abbotsford West, an area he has represented since first being elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in a 1994 by-election. Michael was reappointed as Minister of Finance on June 10, 2013 and also serves as the government House Leader.

Sylvia Kingsmill, BA, LLB, is a National Partner in Deloitte’s Enterprise Risk Services practice, and the firm’s Data Protection and Privacy Leader. She has over 15 years’ experience in providing strategic, risk-based privacy and compliance advisory services, serving a diverse global client base. Her specialty is in advising executive teams on the development and implementation of data-driven digital strategies to support major IT and business transformations, alignment with privacy requirements, including privacy governance. Sylvia assists clients with operationalizing consumer protection laws and transforming existing compliance and privacy programs to align with evolving regulatory expectations, often as a result of internal audit or regulatory findings.

Sylvia recently developed the Privacy by Design Certification Program with Ryerson’s Big Data and Privacy Institute to help clients launch new products and services through privacy enhancing technologies and expand their digital footprint.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Sylvia was legal counsel for a boutique privacy consulting firm, former Chief of Staff to the Privacy Commissioner/Ontario, and interim Chief Privacy Officer for a non-for-profit with global operations.  Sylvia is a licensed lawyer, specializing in business and privacy Business Law, and is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. 

Adam provides the product and solution vision at PHEMI, the company delivering privacy, security, and governance for big data.  Adam co-founded and served as the VP Marketing/Product Management for several successful startups including PolarBlue Systems, OctigaBay Systems (acquired by Cray Inc. in 2004) and Abatis Systems, which was sold to Redback Networks in 2000 as one of the largest private acquisitions in Canadian history.  Throughout his entrepreneurial career, Adam has helped generate over one billion dollars for investors.  He has over 25 years of experience in strategic marketing, product management, and business innovation.  Adam holds an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto.  In 2000, Adam was honored with Canada’s “Top 40 Under 40″ award. Adam is a partner with Magellan Angel Partners where he invests in and mentors high-tech startups. He is also CEO In Residence with the Centre for Growth at the BC Technology Industry Association, coaching early stage high-tech companies.

Don Laursen is a Sr. Product Manager responsible for F5 Core Services. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Product Security. This includes SSL/TLS, Key Encryption and Certificate Management, Platform Security and Libraries: OpenSSL, OpenSSH.

Additional areas of focus includes research and tracking of promoted standards from NIAP, NIST, CESG, ISO, ANSI, BSI and others as they relate industry best practices and compliance at the government, the region, or state or tribal level.

Prior to joining F5, Don was a Principal Technical Product Manager with OpenText, a leader in Enterprise Information Management. Areas of focus included Unified Communications and Microsoft Integration projects supporting MS SharePoint, embedded Search technologies, and Media Server Appliances, with SIP, and MS Exchange.

Don has been in the technology industry for over 20 years, an IEEE, ACM, and International Privacy Professional Member. He holds a MS in computer systems, is a CISSP certified professional and Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US).

Prior to joining the private sector Don spent 10 years serving as a US Naval Cryptologist, in an active-duty role, and as reservist.

John Beal is the National Endpoint Security and Saas Leader for Canada. Previously he was the Sales Leader for Mobility and Endpoint Solutions across Canada and the Caribbean. He has 20 years experience with IBM across both Hardware and Software.

Michael Argast is the Director of TELUS Security Solutions’ National Product Management and Solution Teams, joining in May 2011. As Canada’s largest managed security services provider, TELUS’ fast growing security practice provides wide ranging solutions from GRC consulting, Testing and Vulnerability Assessments, security technology acquisition and implementation, through to full security operations outsourcing. With over a decade of focus on information security, TELUS Security Solutions has hundreds of the largest Canadian government and private sector organizations as customers.

As an internationally experienced expert leading global teams, Fortune 500 companies in the financial services, healthcare and telecom sectors, government and higher education organizations – have relied on Michael’s counsel, and then grounded their implementation plans on his recommendations. A lengthy list of media outlets have sourced him as a security expert including: The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, USA Today, New York Times, Business Week, Forbes, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle and CBC News.

Jane Hamilton has been working with the Canadian federal government since 1998. In her current capacity as Senior Policy Advisor with the Digital Policy Branch of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (formerly Industry Canada), Jane’s focus is on policy development related to building trust and confidence in the digital economy. This work involves both security and privacy aspects.

Prior to working with the federal government, Jane worked for over 12 years in the financial services industry. As a member of the senior management team of the Canadian Payments Association, Jane was responsible for the development of polices and standards for electronic payments.

Jane assumed the role of Chair of the OECD’s Working Party on Security and Privacy in the Digital Economy in 2011 and held that role until December of last year. She continues to be Canada’s delegate to the Working Party and provides advice and guidance to the new Chair in her role as a Vice-Chair of the group.

Matt Reed is the Executive Director, Privacy, Compliance and Training for the Province of BC Government’s Ministry of Citizens’ Services. After writing his Master’s thesis on social media advertising, privacy and choice, he began working for the branch, where he has been for the past ten years. During this tenure Matt has managed the privacy implications of many cross-government initiatives, including: cloud, social media, the mobile worker and open data strategies.

Jeannette Van Den Bulk  is the Assistant Commissioner – Strategic Privacy for the Office of the Commissioner for Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) in Victoria, Australia. She has been with the CPDP for one year after working for eight years with the privacy branch at the Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services in British Columbia, Canada.

Jeannette has designed privacy solutions for large scale, multi-party information sharing initiatives in both Canada and Australia. In BC, she led a team of privacy advisors that reviewed and advised on all Privacy Impact Assessments in government (over 500 per year). Her current role has her providing strategic privacy leadership to the Victorian public sector in the areas of cloud computing, big data, information sharing, biometrics and identity management. 

Hayri Tarhan is the Regional Vice President for Oracle Public Sector Security. He is responsible for sales, go-to-market strategy, and overall growth for Oracle’s Security product lines in the US and Canadian government, healthcare, and higher education space. Hayri helps government agencies across North America protect their most critical asset, their data. He and his team work extensively with customers as they design and evaluate solutions for cyber security, data security, identity and access management, and secure mobile computing. Previously, Hayri lead sales engineering for Oracle Public Sector Security. Hayri has been with Oracle since 1995. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Chantal Bernier is a member of both Dentons’ Canadian Privacy and Cybersecurity practice group and of the Firm’s Government Affairs and Public Policy group. As Assistant and Interim Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Chantal led national and international privacy investigations in the public and private sectors, as well privacy audits, privacy impact assessment reviews, technological analysis, and privacy policy development and research.

Chantal leverages her years in high-ranking positions at the Government of Canada to provide clients with strategic counsel. She is also a member of Statistics Canada’s Advisory Council on the Modernization of Microdata Data Access and of the Standards Council of Canada’s Steering Committee on Canadian Data Governance Standardization Collaborative.

Don Laursen is a Sr. Product Manager responsible for F5 Core Services. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing Local Traffic Manager (LTM) Product Security. This includes SSL/TLS, Key Encryption and Certificate Management, Platform Security and Libraries: OpenSSL, OpenSSH.

Additional areas of focus includes research and tracking of promoted standards from NIAP, NIST, CESG, ISO, ANSI, BSI and others as they relate industry best practices and compliance at the government, the region, or state or tribal level.

Prior to joining F5, Don was a Principal Technical Product Manager with OpenText, a leader in Enterprise Information Management. Areas of focus included Unified Communications and Microsoft Integration projects supporting MS SharePoint, embedded Search technologies, and Media Server Appliances, with SIP, and MS Exchange.

Don has been in the technology industry for over 20 years, an IEEE, ACM, and International Privacy Professional Member. He holds a MS in computer systems, is a CISSP certified professional and Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US).

Prior to joining the private sector Don spent 10 years serving as a US Naval Cryptologist, in an active-duty role, and as reservist.

A highly-regarded researcher in deep packet inspection, security, and behavioural anomaly detection, Krishna Narayanaswamy leads Netskope’s data science and user behaviour research as chief scientist. Krishna brings 24 years of experience, including founding Top Layer Networks and serving as a distinguished engineer at Juniper Networks.

Mark Nunnikhoven helps organizations build securely in the cloud. 

Opinionated, passionate, driven, Mark is more than a cliched byline. In his 20+ years tackling development and operational challenges around the world, Mark has seen all manner of “interesting” solutions.

Teaching the community through his writing, speaking, and code, Mark works hard to help everyone modernize their security practices.

Mark holds a Masters degree in Information Security Systems with specialization Digital Forensics, is an engaging public speaker, an O’Reilly video author, and accomplished computer scientist and security executive. 

Mark is available online at http://markn.ca and @marknca.

John Weigelt leads Microsoft Canada’s strategic policy and technology efforts. He helps individuals and organizations across Canada innovate with technology while avoiding the unintended consequences that might arise. John leads Canadian outreach for a variety of technology policies including: Economic Development, Privacy, Security, Accessibility, AI ethics and Interoperability. He also leads Microsoft Canada’s Responsible AI program and was one of the authors of Canada’s National Standard on Ethics in the Design and Use of Automated Decision Systems.

Richard Thieme is an author and professional speaker focused on the challenges posed by new technologies and the future, how to redesign ourselves to meet these challenges, and creativity in response to radical change, including “identify shift.” His column, “Islands in the Clickstream,” was distributed to subscribers in sixty countries before collection as a book in 2004. When a friend at the National Security Agency said after they worked together on ethics and intelligence issues, “The only way you can tell the truth is through fiction,” he returned to writing short stories, 19 of which are collected in “Mind Games.” A novel FOAM was published by Exurban Press in September 2015. He is also co-author of the critically extolled “UFOs and Government: A Historical Inquiry,” a 5-year research project using material exclusively from government documents and other primary sources, now in 65 university libraries

His work has been taught at universities in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States, and he has guest lectured at numerous universities, including Purdue University (CERIAS), the Technology, Literacy and Culture Distinguished Speakers Series of the University of Texas, the “Design Matters” lecture series at the University of Calgary, and as a Distinguished Lecturer in Telecommunications Systems at Murray State University. He addressed the reinvention of “Europe” as a “cognitive artifact” for curators and artists at Museum Sztuki in Lodz, Poland, keynoted CONFidence in Krakow 2015, and keynoted “The Real Truth: A World’s Fair” at Raven Row Gallery, London, He recently keynoted Code Blue in Tokyo. He has spoken for the National Security Agency, the FBI, the Secret Service, the US Department of the Treasury, and Los Alamos National Labs and has keynoted “hacker,”security, and technology conferences around the world. He spoke in 2015 at Def Con for the 20^th year.

Nikolas is a Futurist with over 20 years of research, writing and speaking experience. He talks about urban design, technology and human connection, intimacy through technology, biohacking, privacy and surveillance, wearable computing, the deep web, disruption in traditional advertising and societal trends that are affecting our world.

He also produces amazing events, including Cyborg Camp, PRODUCT, From Now, DARK FUTURES, BRIGHT FUTURES, and Vancouver Futurists.

Pioneer of the DIY RFID implantation movement, Amal has been helping hobbyists and biohackers explore RFID technology since implanting his first tag in 2005. Since then, he has authored the book RFID Toys, spoken at various venues including hacker clubs, TEDx, and a number of universities. He has also co-authored a peer reviewed research paper on the subject of DIY RFID implantee subculture for the ISTAS 2010 symposium on technology and society.

Martin Abrams has been a privacy innovator for nearly a quarter of century. Abrams is currently Executive Director and Chief Strategist at the Information Accountability Foundation, a non-profit formed to encourage information governance and innovation through research and education. Abrams was President of the Centre for Information Policy Leadership, and Vice President Information Policy at Experian. For the past five years he has led the Global Accountability Project which has refined the accountability principle that is part of various data protection laws and guidance documents. His work has ranged from taking a values approach to privacy, to readable privacy notices, accountability based governance, and big data privacy governance. He has been deeply involved in the development of APEC Cross Border Privacy Rules and has organized privacy conferences and workshops in Asia, Latin America, Australia, North America and Europe.

As Oracle’s Vice President of Global Public policy, Mr. Alhadeff is responsible for coordinating and managing Oracle’s international and Internet-related policy issues.As Chief Privacy Strategist, Mr. Alhadeff oversees Oracle’s strategic planning and advocacy related to privacy, personal information protection and management across all Oracle operations and product areas as well as global fora.In addition to his role at Oracle, Mr. Alhadeff serves a prominent role in several influential international organizations dedicated to Internet policy, security and privacy. Mr Alhadeff serves as the BIAC Chair to the OECD ICCP Committee, head of industry delegation to the OECD Security Steering Group, and a Vice Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Digital Economy Committee. In the EU, Mr. Alhadeff serves as Chair of the Data Protection, Governance and Identity Management working group of the EU Expert Group on Cloud Computing. In the US, Mr. Alhadeff chairs the Digital Economy Committee for the US India Business Council, co-chairs EABC’s Information Governance working group and is Vice Chair of USCIB’s Information Policy Committee. Mr. Alhadeff is also the Chair of the US ASEAN’s Malaysia Committee, Vice-Chair of the US-ASEAN Business Council’s Technology Committee and serves on the NCAPEC Board. Mr Alhadeff also serves on the advisory boards of the Digital Security Council of India, and Wiredkids.org.Prior to joining Oracle, Mr. Alhadeff was General Counsel and Vice President for Electronic Commerce for the US Council for International Business (USCIB) in New York. Mr. Alhadeff holds an M.B.A. in management and information systems from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, and a B.A. from Oberlin College.

Colin Bennett received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Wales, and his Ph.D from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 1986 he has taught in the Department of Political Science at the University of Victoria, where he is now Professor. From 1999-2000, he was a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In 2007 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Society at University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, he was Visiting Professor at the School of Law, University of New South Wales. His research has focused on the comparative analysis of surveillance technologies and privacy protection policies at the domestic and international levels. In addition to numerous scholarly and newspaper articles, he has published six books, including The Privacy Advocates: Resisting the Spread of Surveillance (The MIT Press, 2008), and policy reports on privacy protection for Canadian and international agencies. He is currently the co-investigator of a large Major Collaborative Research Initiative grant entitled “The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting.”

Michelle leads Data Protection for Cisco. Her organization is responsible for corporate data governance, enterprise-wide data incident response, and a comprehensive security certification and compliance strategy. Michelle also represents Cisco in customer engagements and advocates for data protection across Cisco and the industry.

With more than16 years of global leadership experience at Cisco, Michelle has led organizations within a majority of Cisco’s critical functions: Engineering, Channel Sales, Services, Operations, and Corporate Governance. Prior to her current role, she held the position of Corporate Senior Director responsible for Engineering Business Operations, building business plans for the enterprise segment, setting strategy and allocating resources for the execution of these plans on an annual basis. Fleury also served as Chief of Staff and Corporate Director of Worldwide Channel Operations, focused on partner profitability and resale channel operations. Her specialties include:

• Strategic & Operational Planning
• Business Process Optimization
• Critical Account Management
• Product Portfolio Management
• Channel Management
• Customer & Partner Loyalty
• Technical & Consultative Sales

Fleury joined Cisco in 1999 as Critical Account Manager, where she led the US Theater in resolving critical escalation issues for Cisco’s largest customers. She holds a Masters of Science in Management from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Psychology from Eastern Illinois University, as well as numerous technical certifications.

Outside of Cisco, Michelle has served as on the Board of Directors at non-profit at Services for Brain Injury as well as a hospice volunteer with Sutter VNA Hospice in San Mateo, CA. She has also mentored the entrepreneurs of Lakshya Networks, a startup based in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Michelle’s personal interests include running marathons and collecting wine. You can find her online at LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/michellefleury).

Drew was formerly Vice President Corporate Affairs and Chief Compliance Officer for TELUS Communications, Canada’s second largest telecommunications provider. As Chief Compliance Officer, Drew was responsible for legal and regulatory compliance for all of TELUS’ operations, reporting to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors. A major part of the Chief Compliance Officer role for TELUS was that of Privacy Officer. Drew was accountable for the development and implementation of TELUS’ privacy policy, which has been independently recognized as an industry-leading policy. As part of his Privacy Officer role, Drew was involved in fostering a greater understanding of the practical applications of Canada’s private sector privacy legislation. He was a founding member of the Canadian Council of Chief Privacy Officers operating in conjunction with the Conference Board of Canada, and was a long-standing member of their executive committee. In 2004 Drew founded a cross-industry networking association in British Columbia, to assist privacy practitioners in B.C. with understanding the implications of private sector privacy legislation. In 2006 Drew worked with the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), an international organization dedicated to privacy education, to develop the Canadian professional certification program, and was the first individual to achieve the designation of Certified International Privacy Professional of Canada (CIPP/C). In 2007 Drew founded The McArthur Consulting Group and is working with a variety of clients assisting them with strategic initiatives, policy development and practical solutions for managing their business. He is currently assisting the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia by serving on her external advisory committee.

Cheryl was appointed as Associate Deputy Minister to the Ministry of Finance in June 2013 and has now also taken on the role of Chief Records Officer.  Cheryl provides executive leadership to the Crown Agency Resource Office, Internal Audit & Advisory Services, the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch, the BC Lottery Corporation, and now also the Corporate Information & Records Management Office.  She is responsible for Corporate and Crown Governance, Crown Reviews, Internal Audit, Provincial Tax Appeals, Provincial Gaming and now Information Management, including FOI, Government Records Management and Information Protection and Privacy.  Cheryl holds a Certified Public Accountant (CPA previously CMA) designation and has over 25 years of public service experience.

Prior to her current appointment, Cheryl served as Deputy Minister to the Ministry of Advanced Education, Innovation and Technology, A/Deputy Minister of Environment, Associate Deputy Minister of the Environmental Assessment Office, and spent four years as the Province’s Comptroller-General.  Cheryl has also served in a director capacity on a number of public sector boards and recently completed a 2-year term as a member of the Financial Institution Commission.

Earlier in her career, she held executive positions with the Ministry of Finance, the Office of the Premier, the BC Public Service Agency, and the former Ministry of Labour and Citizens Services, including roles as Executive Financial Officer and Chief Financial Officer.  Cheryl also spent a number of years working in internal audit and in a variety of capacities with other organizations such as BC Transit.  Before starting her public service career with the Legislative Library in 1985, she was involved with various small businesses.

The foundation of Cheryl’s professional career has been her principled based approach to leadership and her grounding and expertise in finance and audit.  In August 2007, the Society of Management Accountants of Canada honoured Cheryl with a fellowship award.  This FCPA, CMA designation recognizes the service that she has provided to the accounting profession and distinction in her career as a public servant.

Cheryl enjoys spending her leisure time with her husband, Peter, their two children Harrison and Larryssa, and participating in various activities within her community, including dancing at the local Performing Arts Center.

Since her appointment as British Columbia’s Information and Privacy Commissioner in May 2010, Elizabeth Denham has raised the profile of information rights, promoted transparency in government and adopted a proactive approach to the enforcement of access and privacy laws in B.C. Promoting privacy rights is her top priority. Commissioner Denham has led investigations into several high-profile privacy breaches and has completed systemic reviews that examine the impact of new and emerging technologies on privacy. Ms. Denham has also spearheaded collaborative projects with her federal and provincial colleagues and has co-authored numerous documents, statements and guidance with other Canadian privacy commissioners. Prior to her appointment in British Columbia, she served as Assistant Privacy Commissioner of Canada (2007-2010) and Director, Private Sector, for the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta (2003-2007).

As Oracle’s Vice President of Global Public policy, Mr. Alhadeff is responsible for coordinating and managing Oracle’s international and Internet-related policy issues.As Chief Privacy Strategist, Mr. Alhadeff oversees Oracle’s strategic planning and advocacy related to privacy, personal information protection and management across all Oracle operations and product areas as well as global fora.In addition to his role at Oracle, Mr. Alhadeff serves a prominent role in several influential international organizations dedicated to Internet policy, security and privacy. Mr Alhadeff serves as the BIAC Chair to the OECD ICCP Committee, head of industry delegation to the OECD Security Steering Group, and a Vice Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Digital Economy Committee. In the EU, Mr. Alhadeff serves as Chair of the Data Protection, Governance and Identity Management working group of the EU Expert Group on Cloud Computing. In the US, Mr. Alhadeff chairs the Digital Economy Committee for the US India Business Council, co-chairs EABC’s Information Governance working group and is Vice Chair of USCIB’s Information Policy Committee. Mr. Alhadeff is also the Chair of the US ASEAN’s Malaysia Committee, Vice-Chair of the US-ASEAN Business Council’s Technology Committee and serves on the NCAPEC Board. Mr Alhadeff also serves on the advisory boards of the Digital Security Council of India, and Wiredkids.org.Prior to joining Oracle, Mr. Alhadeff was General Counsel and Vice President for Electronic Commerce for the US Council for International Business (USCIB) in New York. Mr. Alhadeff holds an M.B.A. in management and information systems from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, and a B.A. from Oberlin College.

Peter H. Gregory is a Director at Optiv, the largest pure security solutions provider in North America. He is a strategic advisor to security executives in client organizations from San Francisco to Anchorage. He is the author of over forty books on security and emerging technology, including CISSP Guide to Security Essentials, IT Disaster Recovery Planning For Dummies, CISA All-In-One Study Guide, and Solaris Security.  He is the lead instructor at the University of Washington certificate program in information systems security, and on the UW advisory boards for certificate programs in Cybersecurity and Risk Management, and Cloud Transition and Business Strategy. He is active in InfraGard, the FBI Citizens Academy, and one of the founding members of the Pacific CISO Forum.

John Weigelt leads Microsoft Canada’s strategic policy and technology efforts. He helps individuals and organizations across Canada innovate with technology while avoiding the unintended consequences that might arise. John leads Canadian outreach for a variety of technology policies including: Economic Development, Privacy, Security, Accessibility, AI ethics and Interoperability. He also leads Microsoft Canada’s Responsible AI program and was one of the authors of Canada’s National Standard on Ethics in the Design and Use of Automated Decision Systems.

Howard Waldner is the past President and Chief Executive Officer of Vancouver Island Health Authority, serving in this role from 2004 until 2013. He is curently CEO of Caledonia Solutions, a strategic consulting company he founded in 2013.

He is a visionary and innovative leader with over 30 years of experience of managing health sysytems in both Canada and the U.K. He has a keen interest in system innovation, transformation and performance improvement. He is also passionate in the area of health facility planning, design and procurement and has led the development of number of large and successful hospital projects using both traditional and alternate funding approaches. He received the Canadian College of Health Leaders National Award for Innovation in Health in 2013.

He is a certified member of the Institute of Corporate Directors, and currently serves as an Independent Board Director of Strata-Health Solutions, a successful Calgary based Health IT company, and is a partner with Prioritize Software, a Vancouver based strategic solutions company. He also serves as a volunteer member of the Telus (Victoria) Community Board and has served on a number of “non-profit” Boards, including the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the BC Academic Health Council, (which he chaired for 5 years), the United Way Campaign Cabinet, Carewest, VRRI, and the Greater Victoria Coalition to end Homelessness.

Prior to joining VIHA in 2004, he was the Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the former Calgary Health Region from 1999 until 2004. Before moving to Calgary in 1999, he held a number of senior leadership roles within the Scottish National Health Service, most recently as the Chief Executive of Dundee University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

He received his Executive MBA from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and is a Certified member of the Canadian College of Health Leaders and a Fellow of the United Kingdom Institute of Health Care Managers.

He is Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of British Columbia, and teaches on a number of executive leadership and masters programs in the School of Public and Population Health.

Dr. Khaled El Emam is the founder and president of Privacy Analytics Inc. In 2016 Privacy Analytics was acquired by IMS Health Inc. (now IQVIA). As an entrepreneur, Khaled helped (co-)founded five companies involved with data management and data analytics. He has worked in technical and management positions in academic and business settings in Canada, England, Scotland, Germany, and Japan.

Khaled is also a senior scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute, directs the multi-disciplinary Electronic Health Information Laboratory at the research institute, and is a full professor in the faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. In 2003 and 2004, he was ranked as the top systems and software engineering scholar worldwide by the Journal of Systems and Software based on his research on measurement and quality evaluation and improvement, and ranked second in 2002 and 2005. He is one of only a handful of individual experts in North America qualified to anonymize Protected Health Information under the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

Previously, Khaled was a Senior Research Officer at the National Research Council of Canada. He also served as the head of the Quantitative Methods Group at the Fraunhofer Institute in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Shanti Gidwani is the National Senior Director of Healthcare at Cisco Canada, responsible for the transformation of how healthcare is delivered across Canada and improving patient outcomes and experiences through technology.

Gidwani joined Cisco in 2012 and has extensive experience in healthcare. Prior to Cisco, she was a healthcare consultant for the World Health Organization (European Region and International) before beginning her own healthcare consulting company in Canada. Throughout her career, Gidwani has worked with a variety of organizations including First Nations communities, post-secondary institutions, regional health authorities, and the provincial government of British Columbia in Canada.

Gidwani began her career as a nurse and has worked in diverse clinical areas including maternal/child, reproductive health, STI management, medical/surgical, and HIV/AIDS. She has also taught new nurses at the University of British Columbia and performed duties as director of clinical services for a British Columbia-wide nonprofit healthcare organization, setting clinical and operational policy for more than 50 clinics.

Gidwani holds honours bachelor of science degrees in human biology and zoology from the University of Toronto, a bachelor of science in nursing from Thompson Rivers University, and master of health administration and master of science in nursing degrees from the University of British Columbia. She also has Certified Health Executive status with the Canadian College of Health Leaders and holds a nursing license with the College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia.

Karina is a Partner with KPMG in the Global Health Care and Life Sciences practice with a specialization in Data & Analytics. Karina has assisted Canadian and global health care clients to design and implement data and analytics programs, including important program pillars such as data governance, methods and models management, target operating models and technology. She has been fortunate to work across clinical, population health, health system, health research and health-workforce analytics, working directly with Chief Medical Information Officers, Chief Analytics and Information Officers, and Clinical Leadership, supporting integrated professional teams to make evidence-based decisions. Karina holds a Post-Masters in Applied Health Informatics from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Nursing and a Masters degree from the Information Science School at the University of British Columbia.

Ian has 28 years of experience in Information Technology and Information Management. After graduating from the University of Victoria with a degree in Computer Science, Ian spent 10 years developing software in the Oil & Gas industry, designing submarine detection systems and ultrasonic inspection technology for the Department of National Defence, and health care solutions for the Province of British Columbia. In 1991, Ian joined the BC government and has helped Shared Services BC and the Office of the CIO in developing shared services and corporate solutions. Ian is a thought leader in the development of the Pan-Canadian Identity Management Strategy and the BC Services Card solution for the Province.

Andrew Hughes is an international specialist in identity policy and trust frameworks. After consulting for Canadian Public Sector clients for 14 years at Sierra Systems in Victoria, BC., Andrew launched his ‘second career’ as an international consultant in 2012. He brings Canadian perspectives on identity, privacy and public policy to his clients and colleagues in the United States and elsewhere.

Andrew also serves in leadership roles for international associations, notably Kantara Initiative as co-chair of the Identity Assurance Working Group; and as Plenary Vice-Chair and Board member for the Identity Ecosystem Steering Group, an offshoot of the US National Strategy for Trusted Identity in Cyberspace.

He currently leads a team of experts at the Digital Identity and Authentication Council of Canada to develop an Identity Trust Framework for Canada. 

Asif Savvas is an Associate Partner with Simeio Solutions. He is responsible for Simeio’s Canadian Practice advising customers in both the commercial and public sector space. Prior to joining Simeio, Asif held responsibility for delivery of identity solutions across Canada at Oracle/Sun. He joined Sun as part of the Vaau acquisition where he played a vital role in establishing the Vaau Role Management Product (now renamed Oracle Identity Analytics) as an industry leader in the areas of Role Management and Compliance. He has worked across North America serving clients in the utility, energy, telecommunications, and financial services industries and is seen as a subject matter expert in the areas of Identity Management, RBAC and Compliance. He holds a B.Tech in Information Technology from Madras University and an MBA from The University of British Columbia’s, Sauder School of Business.

Himanshu Verma is a highly innovative and creative leader in the identity management and data protection market, with a passion for Product Management to define strategic vision and proactively position products in the market by staying ahead of the competition. Mr. Verma has the proven ability to convert external and internal customer requirements into business growth and increased revenues. Prior to his 10 years with Gemalto (formally SafeNet) in Product Management, Himanshu Verma held Engineering and Consulting roles at Tellabs and HCL Infosystems.

Gary Perkins is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the Government of British Columbia.  As the Executive Director of the Information Security Branch, Perkins is responsible for providing cybersecurity services in support of the province.  He has more than 18 years of experience in information technology, risk management and cybersecurity. Prior to joining the BC Government, Perkins worked in the private sector as chief of staff for security at TELUS and, earlier in his career, led teams responsible for incident response, operations, delivery and architecture for both corporate and managed security services customers.  A CISSP since 2004, Perkins also holds an MBA from Simon Fraser University’s Management of Technology program.

Michael Argast is the Director of TELUS Security Solutions’ National Product Management and Solution Teams, joining in May 2011. As Canada’s largest managed security services provider, TELUS’ fast growing security practice provides wide ranging solutions from GRC consulting, Testing and Vulnerability Assessments, security technology acquisition and implementation, through to full security operations outsourcing. With over a decade of focus on information security, TELUS Security Solutions has hundreds of the largest Canadian government and private sector organizations as customers.

As an internationally experienced expert leading global teams, Fortune 500 companies in the financial services, healthcare and telecom sectors, government and higher education organizations – have relied on Michael’s counsel, and then grounded their implementation plans on his recommendations. A lengthy list of media outlets have sourced him as a security expert including: The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, USA Today, New York Times, Business Week, Forbes, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle and CBC News.

Justin Malczewski is the Regional Manager, Public Sector Security Solutions for Western Canada at Cisco Systems. He also serves as Immediate Past-President of ISACA Vancouver where he has been instrumental in the establishment of BC AWARE, an annual professional development campaign for Information Security professionals and students who are considering a career in Cybersecurity. Prior to Cisco, Justin made his first forays into security with Fortinet and Forcepoint (formerly Websense), where he was also responsible for the Western Canadian marketplace. A recognition of the need for customers to reduce complexity in what too often has become an unmanageable patchwork of security solutions is what led Justin to Cisco.

Chief Weighill served 31 years with the Regina Police Service, prior to joining the Saskatoon Police Service in 2006. In Regina he worked in Patrol, Communications, Crime Prevention, Commercial Crime, Property Crime, Drugs, Vice, Planning and Research and Senior Administration.

He has lectured to universities, police colleges, national conferences, federal, provincial and municipal governments and appeared before Parliamentary Committees regarding; crime trends, community policing, organized crime, street gangs, vehicle theft, leadership, and the future of policing.

Chief Weighill’s associations are:

• Member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP), the Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police
• Co-Chair – National Police Information Services Advisory Board
• Governor – North Saskatchewan Corps of Commissionaires
• Member – Advisory Committee on Judicial Appointments – Saskatchewan
• Member – CACP Police Information and Statistics Committee
• Member – Canadian Safety and Security Program Advisory Board
• Member – Saskatchewan Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan
• Past Co-Chair CACP Information Technology Sub-Committee
• Past Chair Prairie Region of National Joint Committee of Senior Justice Officials
• Chaired – Business Requirements Sub-Committee developing the business requirements for the $134 million modernization of CPIC.

Chief Weighill holds certificates in Administration and in Continuing Education/ Administrative Development from the University of Regina. He has attended Executive courses at the Canadian Police College, the Banff School of Management and has graduated from the Senior Management Institute for Police, held in Boston and sponsored by the Police Executive Research Forum in the United States.

Chief Weighill is the recipient of the Police Exemplary Service Medal and Bar, the Saskatchewan Protective Services Medal, the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and is a Commander of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces.

Pamela Snively joined TELUS as Chief Data and Trust Officer in October, 2015. She leads the team responsible for data and privacy governance at TELUS. Pamela also serves TELUS’ commitment to integrity through her leadership of a variety of initiatives, including the Anti-bribery & Corruption and Competition Law programs.

Prior to joining TELUS, Pamela managed the consulting arm of Osler’s privacy and data management practices, AccessPrivacy by Osler. As a lawyer and consultant, she provided a broad range of privacy, risk-management and compliance advice in the private, public and health sectors. She assisted organizations in implementing enterprise risk-management programs; advising on privacy and outsourcing governance and accountability programs; designing and implementing records-management programs; drafting policies, procedures and training materials; managing data breaches and other regulatory investigations; and conducting privacy impact or risk assessments.

Pamela formerly held Chief Privacy and Risk Officer roles in large business process outsourcing companies in Canada.

As a Senior Sales Engineer for Trend Micro, Trevor is responsible for pre and post sales services for Western Canada. Trevor has been in the industry for more than 15 years and is experienced in Virtualization Security for VDI server and cloud environments, Endpoint Encryption and DLP, Mobile Security and Content Security, Anti-Spyware and Anti-Phishing.

Justin Malczewski is the Regional Manager, Public Sector Security Solutions for Western Canada at Cisco Systems. He also serves as Immediate Past-President of ISACA Vancouver where he has been instrumental in the establishment of BC AWARE, an annual professional development campaign for Information Security professionals and students who are considering a career in Cybersecurity. Prior to Cisco, Justin made his first forays into security with Fortinet and Forcepoint (formerly Websense), where he was also responsible for the Western Canadian marketplace. A recognition of the need for customers to reduce complexity in what too often has become an unmanageable patchwork of security solutions is what led Justin to Cisco.

Constable is a global security expert, local business and start-up consultant, and international technical advisor in privacy law.

Constable was born in Ontario, and has lived in Victoria and Vancouver for the last 10 years. After working at the highest level in IT Security at Nortel from 1999-2005, in 2007, Constable began consulting as a technical advisor to the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), as well as to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC (OIPC).

Constable became one of the first International Trainers for the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) in 2011. Currently, Constable is the Senior Advisor at PrivaSecTech, a consulting firm specialized in the areas of privacy law, and data security training, testing, and compliance.  PrivaSecTech has been ranked by the British Columbia Innovation Council and Techvibes as one of the top 20 startups in Victoria.

Growing up at the dawn of the consumerization of the Internet, Alex developed a keen interest in cyber security at a very early age. The confluence of insecure computers interconnecting for the first time, the emergence of viruses such as ‘NetBus’ and the release of the movie ‘Hackers’, propelled Alex into the underground world of hacking and has fueled his interests and passion for Internet security and protecting the erosion of personal privacy. Over the past decade, Alex’s personal interests, experience and technical foundation has supported his calling, which has included working within mission critical security operation centres, implementing next generation network surveillance solutions, running the Vancouver 2010 Olympic HoneyNet and assisting in the design and implementation of lawful access infrastructures. Alex is a Senior Security Consultant at IPS, a leading provider of services and solutions specialized in security, compliance and managed security services. Alex leads the company’s SIEM and enterprise security architecture practices, providing clients with advanced situational awareness capabilities and holistic pragmatic approaches to securing complex systems. Beyond the ether, Alex is an active member in the open source DIY Drone community which is devoted to designing and building semi-autonomous aerial vehicles at a fraction of the cost of commercially available aerial surveillance platforms. The DIY Drone and Internet security communities have leveraged these low-cost aerial platforms in several proof of concept projects proving covert aerial surveillance, wireless communication interception and even mobile network cell tower spoofing has been consumerized.

Micheal Vonn is a lawyer and the Policy Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association. She has been an adjunct professor in the faculty of law at the University of British Columbia and an adjunct professor at the UBC School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, where she teaches information ethics and intellectual freedom. Ms. Vonn is a frequent speaker on a variety of civil liberties topics including privacy, national security, policing, surveillance and free speech. She a board member of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and an advisory board member of Privacy International.

Chief Weighill served 31 years with the Regina Police Service, prior to joining the Saskatoon Police Service in 2006. In Regina he worked in Patrol, Communications, Crime Prevention, Commercial Crime, Property Crime, Drugs, Vice, Planning and Research and Senior Administration.

He has lectured to universities, police colleges, national conferences, federal, provincial and municipal governments and appeared before Parliamentary Committees regarding; crime trends, community policing, organized crime, street gangs, vehicle theft, leadership, and the future of policing.

Chief Weighill’s associations are:

• Member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP), the Saskatchewan Association of Chiefs of Police
• Co-Chair – National Police Information Services Advisory Board
• Governor – North Saskatchewan Corps of Commissionaires
• Member – Advisory Committee on Judicial Appointments – Saskatchewan
• Member – CACP Police Information and Statistics Committee
• Member – Canadian Safety and Security Program Advisory Board
• Member – Saskatchewan Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan
• Past Co-Chair CACP Information Technology Sub-Committee
• Past Chair Prairie Region of National Joint Committee of Senior Justice Officials
• Chaired – Business Requirements Sub-Committee developing the business requirements for the $134 million modernization of CPIC.

Chief Weighill holds certificates in Administration and in Continuing Education/ Administrative Development from the University of Regina. He has attended Executive courses at the Canadian Police College, the Banff School of Management and has graduated from the Senior Management Institute for Police, held in Boston and sponsored by the Police Executive Research Forum in the United States.

Chief Weighill is the recipient of the Police Exemplary Service Medal and Bar, the Saskatchewan Protective Services Medal, the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and is a Commander of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces.

Kate Wilson is Legal Counsel with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, where she undertakes both advisory and litigation work in privacy and related areas.  Kate has recently represented the Privacy Commissioner before the Ontario Court of Appeal in two appeals raising privacy issues under private and public sector privacy legislation.  Prior to joining the OPC in 2008, Kate practised civil litigation with a prominent Toronto firm.  She has published articles on a variety of topics related to privacy law and regularly presents on privacy issues.   Kate holds degrees in common and civil law from McGill University and is a member of the Ontario Bar (2005).  For her articles, Kate clerked for Justice Gilles Létourneau (ret’d) of the Federal Court of Appeal.  She holds an M.A. in Canadian History from the University of Toronto and a B.A. Hon. in History and Spanish from the University of King’s College in Halifax.

Michael McEvoy is Deputy Commissioner for the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia (OIPC).

Prior to this appointment, he served as Assistant Commissioner and as Senior Adjudicator.

Before joining the Office he acted as legal counsel to the Labour Relations Board, practiced law in the private sector and was also an advisor to the Attorney General of British Columbia.

Mr. McEvoy’s community service has included Chair of the Greater Victoria Board, serving as President of the BC Trustees Association and the Canadian School Boards Association. He is a past Campaign Chair of the United Way of Greater Victoria.

He is married with two daughters, is a road bike enthusiast and continues to have dreams of glory as a hockey player with the Victoria Grey Leafs old-timers.

Constable is a global security expert, local business and start-up consultant, and international technical advisor in privacy law.

Constable was born in Ontario, and has lived in Victoria and Vancouver for the last 10 years. After working at the highest level in IT Security at Nortel from 1999-2005, in 2007, Constable began consulting as a technical advisor to the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), as well as to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC (OIPC).

Constable became one of the first International Trainers for the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) in 2011. Currently, Constable is the Senior Advisor at PrivaSecTech, a consulting firm specialized in the areas of privacy law, and data security training, testing, and compliance.  PrivaSecTech has been ranked by the British Columbia Innovation Council and Techvibes as one of the top 20 startups in Victoria.

Alex Manea is the Director of BlackBerry Security. He is a founding member of the group that has made BlackBerry synonymous with mobile security. Alex has looked after mobile security for nearly 10 years, including BlackBerry smartphones, BES, BBM, Android and iOS. He is a Certified Software Security Lifecycle Professional and has an Honors degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo. In 2015, Alex appeared on Season 2 of the hit CBC show Canada’s Smartest Person, winning his episode and competing in the Season Finale.

Sue Wishart is a Provincial Court Judge in Victoria B.C. She obtained her law degree from the University of Victoria in 1994 and a Master’s of Science degree from Queen’s University in 1990. Prior to her appointment to the bench in 2009 Sue was a partner in the law firm of McKimm and Wishart in Victoria. She practiced mainly in the area of criminal defence law and conducted cases at all levels of court. During her time as a lawyer Sue was very involved with the Canadian Bar Association including Chair of the criminal section in Victoria, an elected member of Provincial Council and an elected member of the Executive of the BC Branch of the CBA. As a Judge, she deals with criminal, family and small claims cases. Her duties also include reviewing, and where appropriate, approving various types of warrants. In 2015 Sue was President of the Provincial Court Judges’ Association of BC and served as a member of Judicial Council during that time.

Martin Abrams has been a privacy innovator for nearly a quarter of century. Abrams is currently Executive Director and Chief Strategist at the Information Accountability Foundation, a non-profit formed to encourage information governance and innovation through research and education. Abrams was President of the Centre for Information Policy Leadership, and Vice President Information Policy at Experian. For the past five years he has led the Global Accountability Project which has refined the accountability principle that is part of various data protection laws and guidance documents. His work has ranged from taking a values approach to privacy, to readable privacy notices, accountability based governance, and big data privacy governance. He has been deeply involved in the development of APEC Cross Border Privacy Rules and has organized privacy conferences and workshops in Asia, Latin America, Australia, North America and Europe.

Bette-Jo has been the Chief Information Officer for the Province of British Columbia since October 2012. The Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) plays a leadership role in promoting and guiding the management of government information as a strategic business asset, and supporting technology infrastructure as a key enabler of business transformation. Prior to her current appointment, Bette-Jo was Assistant Deputy Minister of Service BC where she led cross government service delivery initiatives to improve services to the public across online, telephone and in-person channels, registry and statistical services.

Bette-Jo has been involved in the development of service delivery agreements with the private sector, including the negotiation of the Service BC – IBM Alternative Service Delivery Agreement for the provision of web channel and contact centre services.

Prior to joining the Government Agents Branch and Service BC, Bette-Jo worked at the provincial and community level in the field of community economic development. Before starting her career over 20 years ago with the British Columbia public service, Bette-Jo worked in the financial services industry, the federal government and non-profit organizations.

Bette-Jo has previously been the British Columbia representative on the Canadian Public Sector Service Delivery Council and past President of the Board of Directors for the Institute for Citizen Centred Service. She currently is the B.C. representative for the Public Sector Chief Information Officers’ Council.

Drew was formerly Vice President Corporate Affairs and Chief Compliance Officer for TELUS Communications, Canada’s second largest telecommunications provider. As Chief Compliance Officer, Drew was responsible for legal and regulatory compliance for all of TELUS’ operations, reporting to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors. A major part of the Chief Compliance Officer role for TELUS was that of Privacy Officer. Drew was accountable for the development and implementation of TELUS’ privacy policy, which has been independently recognized as an industry-leading policy. As part of his Privacy Officer role, Drew was involved in fostering a greater understanding of the practical applications of Canada’s private sector privacy legislation. He was a founding member of the Canadian Council of Chief Privacy Officers operating in conjunction with the Conference Board of Canada, and was a long-standing member of their executive committee. In 2004 Drew founded a cross-industry networking association in British Columbia, to assist privacy practitioners in B.C. with understanding the implications of private sector privacy legislation. In 2006 Drew worked with the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), an international organization dedicated to privacy education, to develop the Canadian professional certification program, and was the first individual to achieve the designation of Certified International Privacy Professional of Canada (CIPP/C). In 2007 Drew founded The McArthur Consulting Group and is working with a variety of clients assisting them with strategic initiatives, policy development and practical solutions for managing their business. He is currently assisting the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia by serving on her external advisory committee.