Here are the links to the bios we received from the speakers and panelists. They are listed in the same order as the agenda for the event.
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Laurence is founder and CEO of nanoPay Corporation, a SaaS business that provides loyalty and payments in a single use token to retailers and online merchants. nanoPay recently purchased MintChip™ from the Royal Canadian Mint, the first regulator friendly digital cash platform offering frictionless™ payments. Prior to starting nanoPay, Laurence was an independent management consultant with a focus on high tech and telecommunications. Most of his work is with private equity, equity analysts and wireless new entrants.
Previously, Laurence worked with WIND Canada and was Vice President of Wireless at Shaw Communications Inc. He was also Chief Operating Officer of Bell Mobility and Bell Distribution Inc., a Bell Canada Officer and Director of Bell Mobility, Bell Distribution Inc., and DownEast. As COO, Laurence was responsible for a P&L approaching $5bn in revenue and $2bn in EBITDA, nearly 9,000 employees and serving over 6 million wireless customers throughout Canada.
Laurence was responsible for all of Bell Mobility’s operations, including sales (consumer and business), client care, base marketing, network and IS/IT. Laurence was also responsible for Bell Canada’s distribution operations – Bell Distribution Inc., which included corporate stores, dealers, national retail and logistics. Bell Distribution was responsible for the sales of all Bell Mobility (wireless), Bell ExpressVu (satellite TV), Bell home phone and Bell Sympatico (ISP) products across all channels.
Prior to joining Bell, Laurence held several senior executive positions with leading wireless and high-tech organizations, including Senior Executive at Accenture Communications and High Tech Strategy practice in London. Laurence co-founded two wireless data businesses in Europe: Melodeo, Inc., which developed an end-to- end download music solution for wireless operators and Xtempus, which created a wireless data platform for operators. Prior to that, Laurence served as board member and Director of Business Development for CPP Group plc. Laurence has had many executive and non-executive board positions in companies across Europe.
Laurence holds a Master in Business Administration (MBA) degree from the London Business School (University of London), and a BSc degree in Computer Science and Economics from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He also studied at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.
Hossein is a recognized figure in ubiquitous and pervasive computing. His research explores artificial intelligence, mobile human-computer interaction, and the effective design of contextual services. In 2012, he was recognized by the MIT Technology Review as one of the world’s top innovators under the age of 35 for his research in context-aware computing. The Smithsonian named Hossein as one of the top six innovators to watch. Hossein has 30 publications and 10 patents in ubiquitous computing, and is a Council Member of the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). Hossein is also a visiting scholar at the Human Dynamics group at MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, MA. He has a PhD in Computer Science from Ryerson University.
Didier Serra, EVP Sales & Marketing, leads all of SecureKey’s market facing activities including sales, channel partnerships, technology partnerships, marketing, and program delivery. He brings SecureKey two decades of experience in contactless, near field communication (NFC), and secure microprocessors together with broad engineering, operational, sales and marketing experience in international markets.
Prior to joining SecureKey, Didier was general manager and executive vice president of sales for North America at INSIDE Secure, a company he had co-founded in 1995. He was successful in leading INSIDE’s revenue growth in North America from 2005 through 2013.
Didier earned a technical degree in physical measures from Technical Institute St. Jerome in Marseille, France, and a master’s degree in engineering and microelectronics and transmission of information from the Institute of Industrial Physics and Chemical in Lyon, France.
Thomas Beattie has more than 12 years’ experience in financial services and investment banking, and has been Voleo’s CEO since January 2015. Over the course of his career Thomas has been involved with the raising billions of dollars of capital for public and private companies, and led numerous M&A transactions. He started his first business at the age of 10, conceived a concept for a virtual stock market while in university, and has since contemplated other platforms to improve access to and efficiency of capital markets. Thomas is a CFA charterholder and holds a BComm (Finance) from Sauder School of Business at UBC (Vancouver, BC, Canada).
Norm Cappell, Head of Capital Markets, Borrowell: Norm led Canadian high yield bond origination for RBC Capital Markets, and previously worked in leveraged finance at Citadel Investment Group and Merrill Lynch in New York. Prior to that, Norm practiced corporate law in New York and London with Cahill Gordon and Allen & Overy. He holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a degree in English literature from UC Berkeley.
Peter Kalen is one of Canada’s most seasoned retail credit executives.
Peter spent the early part of his career at Canada Trust in the credit card and consumer lending division. He subsequently joined Citibank Canada’s credit card division (Citi Cards Canada), where he would spend the next several years in progressive positions, concluding his career at Citi Cards as Senior Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer. At Citibank, Peter worked closely with Petro- Canada to launch the Citibank Petro-Points MasterCard, the first major launch of a contactless credit card in Canada, and one of the most successful credit card launches in Canadian history. Peter also managed the marketing for credit card programs with retail partners such as Staples, Ikea, Costco and The Home Depot. Peter then moved to President’s Choice Financial as Senior Vice-President, leveraging his experience partnering with retailers in credit card programs to manage the credit card business for Loblaws. In 2009, Peter moved to Sears Canada to lead their Financial Services organization, with the mandate to manage one of Canada’s largest retail credit card portfolios. In addition, Peter was given responsibility for several other divisions at Sears, including Sears Travel, Warranties, Sears Connect Telecom Services, Specialty Services (such as Sears Portrait Studios and Sears Optical) and Sears Home Services, concluding his career at Sears as Executive Vice-President of Financial and Home Services.
Since June 2013, Peter has dedicated himself to the launch of Flexiti Financial.
Peter obtained his Honours Business Administration (H.B.A.) and Master in Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Ivey Business School at Western University.
Many in the payments industry regard David as a thought leader and visionary in the areas of mobile, marketing and data analytics. His enthusiasm and passion for solving large scale industry problems combined with his ability to inspire world class talent to follow him sets him apart from many other startup CEO’s.
David has over twenty years of experience in online marketing, financial technology, mobile development and corporate finance. After attending University of British Columbia, David launched his first venture at the age of 26. By 29, David had successfully grown the business to a point that he saw his first successful exit and has never looked back.
Today, David leads the team at PayWith. Together, they push the boundaries of what is possible in the world of payments, marketing and data. David’s leadership and vision have lead to numerous awards and honors, including being awarded the “Best Mobile Payments & Rewards Platform” in 2014 by Emerging Payments.
