2025 Program

Breakfast startup pitch

8:00 - 8:45 AM

Opening of the 12th CanadaFintech Forum

9:00 - 9:30 AM

WELCOMING WORDS

Jacques Deforges, Chief Executive Officer, Finance Montréal

Plenary session 1

Platformization of Financial Services: Are Banks Becoming Tech Companies?

9:30 - 10:20 AM

PLENARY

Ellen Linardi, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Synctera

Patrick Surry, Chief Data Scientist, Hopper

Malik Yacoubi, Co-Founder and CEO, Nesto Group

Panel 1

Faster than ever : Real-time payments and the future of financial institutions

10:30 - 11:20 AM

PANEL

Isabelle Dreyer, Vice-President, Everyday Banking, Cards & Payments, Mouvement Desjardins

Sladjana Jovanovic, CIO, Personal & Business Banking Technology and B2C Data Transformation, BMO Financial Group

Patrice Roy, Payments Lead, National Bank of Canada

MODERATOR

Karen Cheng, Chief Technology Officer and Distinguished Engineer, Kyndryl Canada

Panel 2

Borderless by Default: How Embedded Finance is Redefining Cross-Border Payments

11:30 AM - 12:20 PM

PANEL

Hamed H. Arbabi, Founder and CEO, VoPay

Stephanie Choo, Partner, Portage

Rachelle Hildyard, Managing Director, Global FIG & Correspondent Banking Sales, Global Transaction Banking, Scotiabank

MODERATOR

Ramesh Jayakrishnan, Vice President - New Payment Platforms, Mastercard

Lunch break

12:20 - 1:30 PM

Fintech Review

Canada Fintech - 2025 and Beyond

1:30 - 2:00 PM

TALK

Surinderjit Kaur (Jeet), Founder and CEO, Fathom4Sight

INTRODUCED BY

Dominique Samson, Chief Operating Officer, Flinks

Panel 3

Unleashing Innovation: The game-changing shift in Canada's payments landscape

2:00 - 2:50 PM

PANEL

Paula Dunlop, Vice President, Policy, Government Relations and Research, Payments Canada

Brigitt Carroll, Head of Policy, Americas, Wise

More details coming soon

MODERATOR

Jeff Mulholland, Lead Client Partner, IBM Consulting

Panel 4

3:00 - 3:50 PM

PART I

The rise of stablecoins

PRESENTATION

Karim Gillani, General Partner, Luge Capital

PART II

A Rich Fintech Ecosystem

STARTUP PRESENTATIONS

Charles-André Bergeron, CEO, Ezo

Avinash Chidambaram, Founder and CEO, Cybid

Marc Milewski, Co-Founder, Zum Rails

Cato Pastoll, Co-Founder and CEO, Loop Financial

MODERATOR

Laviva Mazhar, Principal, Luge Capital

Keynote 1

4:00 - 4:45 PM

PART I - Reinventing everyday banking

SPEAKER

Daniel Eberhard, Founder and CEO, KOHO

MODERATOR

Balinder Ahluwalia, Senior Vice President and Head of Market Development and Digital Partnerships, Mastercard Canada

PART II - The next frontier of consumer credit

SPEAKER

Michael Linford, Chief Operating Officer, Affirm

MODERATOR

Balinder Ahluwalia, Senior Vice President and Head of Market Development and Digital Partnerships, Mastercard Canada

Networking Cocktail

5:00 - 7:00 PM

Annual Dinner

7:00 - 9:00 PM

OPENING WORDS

Jacques Deforges, CEO, Finance Montréal

INTRODUCTION

Hamed H. Arbabi, 

CEO and Founder, VoPay

GUEST SPEAKER 1

Jessica Tan, President, Sun Life Canada 

INTRODUCTION

Anthony Rjeily, Senior Associate, EY Canada

GUEST SPEAKER 2

Laurent Ferreira, President and CEO, Banque Nationale du Canada 

CHAIR

Paul Desmarais III, Chairman and CEO, Sagard

Breakfast startup pitch

8:00 - 8:45 AM

Opening of Day 2

9:00 - 9:30 AM

OPENING WORDS

Michael Godin, President, Canada, CGI

Plenary session 2

The Rise of AI Agents: How Autonomous Systems Are Reshaping Financial Services

9:30 - 10:20 AM

PANEL

Catherine Desgagnés-Belzil, Executive Vice-President and Leader, Business Performance and Information Technology, Beneva

Michael Pelosi, Country Manager, Canada, Cohere

Hossein Rahnama, Founder and CEO, Flybits

Parinaz Sobhani, Managing Director & Head of AI, Sagard

MODERATOR

David Marotte, Leader, Data and Artificial Intelligence, Regional Lead – Industrial Markets, KPMG Canada

Panel 5

From blueprint to buy-in: Choosing your AI journey

10:30 - 11:20 AM

PANEL

Daniel Grossi, Executive Vice-President, Information Technology, Mouvement Desjardins

Julie Lévesque, Executive Vice-President – Technology and Operations, National Bank of Canada

Michael Pelosi,  Country Manager, Canada, Cohere

MODÉRATEUR

Thierry Bélanger-Roy, Technology Partner, Canadian Platforms Leader, EY Canada

Panel 6

Cloud Collabs, Cyber gaps, and Collective Accountability: Securing GenAI Workspaces at Scale

11:30 AM - 12:20 PM

PANEL

Geneviève Bertrand, Senior Director, Information Security and Crisis Management, PSP Investments

André Boucher, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Security Officer, National Bank of Canada

Bianca Lavoie, Managing Director, Ministère de la Cybersécurité et du Numérique du Québec (MCN)

Giovanni Sansalone, Vice President, Security Evolution, Mouvement Desjardins

MODERATOR

Eva Verreault, Chief Revenue Officer, Mondata

Lunch break

12:20 - 1:00 PM

ElleFintech Demo Day

1:15 - 2:00 PM

Panel 7

Bridging the AI talent gap: The future of work in financial services

2:00 - 2:50 PM

PANEL

Shelby Austin, Co-Founder and CEO, Arteria AI

David Ouellet, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology, Data and Operations Officer, PSP Investments

Shingai Manjengwa, Senior Director, Education and Development, Talent & Ecosystem, Mila

MODERATOR

Melisa Muraca, Vice-president and Global Chief Architect, Sun Life

Panel 8

AI in Financial Crime Prevention: Striking a Balance Between Security & Privacy

3:00 - 3:50 PM

PANEL

Octavia Howell, Vice-President, Chief Information Officer Security Officer, Equifax Canada

Gideon Hazam, Co-Founder, COO and CCO, MEMCYCO

Farid Jiandani,  Co-Founder and SVP of Business Development, Theom

Matt Vega, Chief of Staff and Fraud Fighter, Sardine

MODERATOR

Philippe Daoust, Vice-President & Managing Director, NAVentures, National Bank of Canada

Keynote 2

The new financial Playbook: AI as a systemic Game-changer

4:00 - 4:45 PM

DISCUSSION

Shelby Austin, Co-Founder and CEO, Arteria AI

Armando Benitez, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Head of AI, BMO Capital Markets

MODERATOR

Chris Juryn, Vice President of Business Consulting, CGI

Closing

4:45 - 4:55 PM

CLOSING WORDS

Jacques Deforges, Chief Executive Officer, Finance Montréal

Closing Cocktail Reception

5:00 - 7:00 PM