Speakers

Scientific Director, Mila & IVADO, Full Professor, Samsung AI Professor, Université de Montréal, Canada CIFAR AI Chair

Recognized worldwide as one of the leading experts in artificial intelligence, Yoshua Bengio is most known for his pioneering work in deep learning, earning him the 2018 A.M. Turing Award, “the Nobel Prize of Computing,” with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun.

President and Chief Executive Officer, MILA

Valérie Pisano has over 10 years of experience in talent, leadership, diversity and organizational dynamics. Appointed CEO of Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute – she joins an emerging group of women leading tech companies. She was previously Chief Talent Officer at Cirque du Soleil and cofounded The Mobïus Bias Project, an initiative focused on accelerating the dialogue on female leadership roles by exploring unconscious bias. She began her career at McKinsey & Company after a Master's Degree in Economics at HEC Montreal and is the proud mother of three girls.

Executive Director, CEIMIA

Sophie Fallaha is an accomplished business executive with a passion for innovation, sustainability and responsible AI. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the International Centre of Expertise on Artificial Intelligence in Montreal (CEIMIA), a leading international NGO that specializes in the development and implementation of high-impact projects in responsible AI. Sophie has over 15 years of experience in innovation bridging the gap between research and practice in multi-stakeholders environments, having worked with both multinational corporations, governments and non-profit organizations. Her expertise lies in developing and implementing sustainable business strategies that generate social, environmental, and economic value in the field of responsible AI.

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Arteria AI

Shelby Austin is the founder and CEO of Arteria AI Inc., an award-winning digital documentation software that was incubated and then spun out of the world’s largest consulting firm. Arteria works with large financial institutions around the world providing infrastructure for them to document and monitor deals with clients.

Co-founder & CEO, Spellbook

Scott Stevenson is the CEO and co-founder of Spellbook, the leading legal software company that launched the first generative AI contract drafting tool in September 2022. Scott has a background in software engineering and has been building technology products for over 15 years.

CEO, BrainBox AI

Sam Ramadori oversees the execution of BrainBox AI’s growth-oriented business plan, leads the senior management team, and manages investor relations. As a sustainability enthusiast, he brings a passion for driving impactful change, particularly towards fighting the climate crisis.

Co-Founder & CEO, Promise Robotics

Ramtin Attar is the CEO & Co-Founder of Promise Robotics; a pioneering Canadian AI startup that enables the building industry to harness industrialized robotic automation to exponentially increase production of sustainable housing. Prior to founding Promise Robotics, Ramtin was a Distinguished Research Scientist, a founding member of Autodesk Research, and Head of Autodesk Technology Centre in Canada.

Chief Scientfic Officer, Insitro

Philip Tagari is currently Chief Scientific Officer of insitro, a leading MachineLearning – Drug Discovery company. His team of multidisciplinary scientists andengineers are redefining disease biology and implementing novel approaches todramatically speed the delivery of meaningful therapeutics to patients with grievousdisease. Prior to insitro, Philip spent a decade as Vice President of Research (TherapeuticDiscovery) at Amgen Inc.

Senior Director and Head, Generative AI Innovation Labs, RBC

Patricia Arocena is a Senior Director and Head of the Generative AI Innovation Labs at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), working within the Innovation and Technology organization. She is responsible for understanding emerging technologies in the Generative AI space and helping drive their adoption across the bank.

Co-Founder & VP, Decision Science, Moov AI

Olivier is the co-founder and VP of decision science at Moov AI. He is the editor of the international ISO standard that defines the quality of artificial intelligence systems, and he leads a team of 50 AI professionals from around the world. His cutting-edge AI and machine learning knowledge have led him to implement a data culture in various industries and support digital transformation projects in many companies such as Pratt & Whitney, Metro, Sharethrough, Merck, and Premier Tech. He is a mentor for AI for Creative Destruction Labs and coaches several start-ups. As a speaker, his topics of choice are adopting and applying AI and responsible AI. Olivier is the recipient of the prestigious "30 under 30" award (2019) and is the co-author of a patent for an advanced algorithm that evaluates a borrower's creditworthiness.

Co-Founder & CEO, Poly AI

Nikola Mrkšić is the Co-Founder and CEO of PolyAI, the premier developer of customer-led voice assistants for enterprise contact centers. He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Ph.D. in Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing, and was among the first engineers on the Siri development team for Apple.

Co-Founder & Co-CEO, AltaML

Nicole Janssen is a highly accomplished entrepreneur and leader in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). As Co-Founder and Co-CEO of AltaML, a leading developer of AI-powered solutions, she has driven the company’s success in diverse sectors such as agriculture, finance, health, and energy.

Senior Vice President Date and Intelligence, AlayaCare

Naomi is currently Senior Vice President, of Data and Intelligence at AlayaCare. Her mandate is to drive value and leverage data to support the innovation strategy of AlayaCare. This is done through applied research in machine learning and optimization applications to make home care agencies more efficient and improve clinical outcomes. Naomi also has a wealth of experience as a start-up entrepreneur and a seasoned business executive.

President, Co-Founder, Recursion Canada, Cyclica

Innovator in Chief, Director, Conseil d'Innovation du Québec

Luc Sirois is Quebec’s Chief Innovation Officer, general director of the Quebec Innovation Council of and founding Chairman of the Board of Axelys, Quebec's society valorizing public research.

COO & Co-Founder, Jaide Health

Julie is the co-founder and COO of Jaide Health. She is a highly energetic, visionary operations leader with a reputation for challenging the status quo. From her early career in pediatric nursing to developing new products at Google to founding her own start-up, Julie has always focused on understanding systems and end users – designing products that improve communication and optimize productivity.

Chief Product and Technology Officer, Lightspeed

John Shapiro is Lightspeed's Chief Product and Technology Officer. He is responsible for leading our global Product and Technology team and driving our product strategy to bring technology and insight to the innovators who are elevating their industries.

Executive Director, Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, CIFAR

Elissa Strome is the Executive Director of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy at CIFAR. She works with leaders at Canada’s three national AI Institutes in Edmonton (Amii), Montreal (Mila), and Toronto (Vector Institute) and across the country to advance Canada’s leadership in AI research, training and innovation. She is a champion of equity, diversity and inclusion in science, and an ambassador for Canada’s position in AI research, innovation, and policy internationally.

CEO & Co-Founder, Forethought

Deon Nicholas is the CEO and Co-Founder of Forethought, the Generative AI for Customer Support company. Forethought has raised $90M+ in venture capital, was recognized as one of G2’s Best Software Products for 2023, was named to CNBC’s 25 Top Startups for the Enterprise in 2022, and won TechCrunch Disrupt in 2018. Before starting Forethought, Deon built products and infrastructure at Facebook, Palantir, Dropbox, and Pure Storage.

Chief Commercialization Officer & Vice President, Industry Innovation, Vector Institute

Cameron Schuler is the Chief Commercialization Officer & Vice President, Industry Innovation at the Vector Institute. He is the former Executive Director of Amii, where, for 8 years, he led one of the top-ranked Machine Learning and AI groups in the world. Cameron’s multifaceted career has covered finance, business & product development, consumer products, IT and general management from start-ups to mature companies.

CEO, AMII

Cam Linke is a longtime leader in Edmonton’s technology and startup community. Over the past 10 years, he has worked as a CEO, investor, community builder, product manager, software entrepreneur, academic, and developer. Past roles include Co-founder of Startup Edmonton, Founder of Flightpath Ventures, CEO of Touch Metric, Product Manager at Nexopia.com, and Founder of DemoCamp Edmonton. Linke is a sought-after speaker and mentor and has been recognized as Avenue Magazine Top 40 Under 40.

CEO, Siradel

As the CEO of Siradel, an ENGIE Group company, Aurélien Fattore leads a team of 170+ experts who share a common purpose: to deliver digital technologies that accelerate the transition towards more connected, carbon-neutral and resilient cities and industries.

Vice-President - Strategic Development and Innovation, 7Doigts de la main

Alexandre Teodoresco is Vice-President of Strategic Development and Innovation at Les 7Doigts de la main. Les 7Doigts are leaders in live performance in Canada, and have been touring the planet with their original creations for 22 years. Alexandre has his sights firmly set on the future of live performance. His mandate is to guide Les 7Doigts into new markets, and to design and implement strategies to explore new horizons for the company. His comfort zone and the projects he leads lie at the intersection of human creativity, live performance and technology. One of these structuring projects, LAB7, is already enabling 7Doigts to embark on the adventure of AR, VR, XR and, of course, artificial intelligence. An ardent promoter of Quebec's techno-creative strengths, Alexandre contributes to the advancement of AI for the cultural industries as Chairman of Entertain - AI.