CORPORATE FINANCE AND CONTROLLERS SUMMIT

Ajay Pangarkar, CPA, CTDP

Ajay Pangarkar is President of CentralKnowledge, providing organizations with simple solutions for complex training problems. Under Ajay’s leadership, CentralKnowledge was named Training Magazine’s 2008 “Technology in Action, Learning Management Project of the Year” for its success with Apple. An award-winning writer, Ajay has co-authored three books and was the recipient of the 2014 and 2015 TrainingIndustry.com Readership and Editors’ Award. Ajay also develops courses for LinkedIn Learning.

Alex Fisher

In his role at the Office of the Chief Accountant at the Ontario Securities Commission, Alex Fisher provides specialized accounting advisory services to the Commission, its senior management and staff, and market participants. Alex is also a financial literacy advocate and a contributing author to CPA Canada's financial literacy program. He is a part-time instructor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, and was awarded the Seymour Schulich Award for Teaching Excellence in 2013, 2015, and 2019.

Alex Garber, CPA, CA, MTax

Alex Garber has been working in public practice since 2004, focusing primarily on income taxation for Canadian owner-managed businesses and their shareholders, and assisting various clients, firms, and sole practitioners as an independent tax advisor. Alex lectures at the CPA Canada In-Depth Tax Program and presents PD seminars for CPA Ontario. He is also a faculty member at York University’s Schulich School of Business, where he teaches Income Taxation at both the Bachelor's and Master's levels.

Candice Faktor

Candice Faktor is Managing Partner of Faktory Ventures, an early-stage fund investing in exponential technologies and network effects. Previously, Candice was the GM at Wattpad and a co-creator of Torstar Digital. She currently sits on the board at Coveo, a leading Canadian enterprise AI company, and is an Associate of the Creative Destruction Lab. Candice is also an Advisory Board Member for both the Centre for Brain Health and Innovation as well as Node Living, a global modern real estate platform.

Craig Cross, CPA, CA

Craig Cross is a partner in RSM’s Technical Accounting Consulting group, where he provides technical, accounting, and financial reporting solutions for complex issues. A specialist in accounting standards and financial reporting, Craig has participated in numerous industry forums and roundtables on accounting standards development and policy setting. He has spent 20 years providing accounting and business advisory services, including a secondment with the Ontario Securities Commission.

Dave Paradi

David Kim is RSM Canada’s Manager, Technical Accounting Consulting. He specializes in professional standards, audit, and assurance services, and leads client service teams in conducting accounting advisory engagements for reporting issuers and large private enterprises. David has an in-depth knowledge of International Financial Reporting Standards, Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises, US GAAP, Accounting Standards for Not-for-Profit Organizations, and Public Sector Accounting Standards.

David Kim, CPA, CA

David Kim is RSM Canada’s Manager, Technical Accounting Consulting. He specializes in professional standards, audit, and assurance services, and leads client service teams in conducting accounting advisory engagements for reporting issuers and large private enterprises. David has an in-depth knowledge of International Financial Reporting Standards, Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises, US GAAP, Accounting Standards for Not-for-Profit Organizations, and Public Sector Accounting Standards.

Ebru Erkan

Ebru Erkan has more than 15 years of experience in accounting, auditing, project management, and team building. As CPA Ontario’s VP of Member Advisory Services, she develops and oversees advisory services for the organization’s members and firms. Previously, as Director of Accounting Policy at RBC, Ebru advised business units on transactions and leading accounting standards implementation. She has held management positions at Deloitte, PwC, and Assurance Group, in both Istanbul and Toronto.

Jane Watson, CHRL

Jane Watson is Senior People Partner at Klick Health. Over the last 15 years, Jane has worked with companies in the private, public, and non-profit sectors, and has held regional and national leadership roles in Human Resources. She was also a member of the executive leadership team of an innovative, fully remote tech start-up. In 2015, she was named an HR Rising Star of the Year finalist at the Canadian HR Awards. Jane also writes and speaks on the topic of progressive people and culture practices.

Jodi Kovitz

Jordan Rodney

Jordan Rodney is Founder of Rodney Employment Law and President at MaxPeople, where he provides HR consulting, employment law, and training services. An employment lawyer with over 20 years of experience in the area of employment law and human resources, Jordan handles a broad spectrum of employment and labour matters. He is also sought-after speaker and has been featured in the Globe and Mail, Dialogue Magazine, The Bottom Line, Canadian HR Reporter, The Voice of Business Magazine, and Lawyers Weekly.

Justin Leiby

Justin Leiby is an Associate Professor of Accountancy and Professor Ken Perry Faculty Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he teaches risk management, assurance, and analytics. He is currently developing a course that infuses design thinking concepts into risk management and analytics, with the goal of helping students “bring empathy to the data,” and use analytics to better serve stakeholders. Professor Leiby has presented his research in the US, Canada, and Europe.

Dr. Karyn Gordon

Dr. Karyn Gordon is a bestselling author, media personality, and the founder and CEO of DK Leadership, a company that specializes in coaching and emotional intelligence skills for organizations and families. She is a regular expert on Good Morning America in the US and Cityline in Canada. She also produces Success Stories for Rogers Television, and has written regular columns for New York Parenting and Chatelaine. Her mission is to inspire people to dream their best life, learn the tools, and do it.

Linda Nazareth

Linda Nazareth is an economist, futurist, and an expert on the future of work. She has authored four books, and is a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail. Linda is a sought-after keynote speaker who takes huge ideas and distills them into information an organization can use for strategic planning purposes. Her audiences include clients from The Economist Magazine, American Express, E & Y, and the Bank of Montreal. A frequent media commentator, Linda has been quoted in a wide variety of publications.

Luca Bucci

Luca Bucci is Vice President of Government Relations and Public Policy at CPA Ontario. He has close to a decade of progressively responsible government relations experience, and has served as both Chief of Staff to three Ministries in the Ford Government and as an Advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He also worked as a Senior Consultant at Hill and Knowlton Strategies, Canada’s largest government relations consulting agency, and spent a year advising the executive leadership team at Hydro One.

Philip Maguire

Philip Maguire is Principal at Glenidan Consultancy, an accounting practice that specializes in compliance and internal audits. With more than 30 years of international business experience across a variety of industries, Philip has assisted companies with market capitalizations ranging from $50 M to $2 B. Philip is also Founder and Managing Director of Executive Mentors, an organization comprised of retired business executives that mentor Canada’s next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Rosanna Lamanna

Rosanna Lamanna provides accounting, tax, and business advisory services.  She offers strategic advice, and assists Canadian and international companies with their financial reporting and tax compliance needs. Rosanna works with companies that range from privately held businesses to early-stage startups. She has been featured in several business publications, and has been interviewed by various media outlets for her perspective on industry issues. Rosanna is also an instructor with CPA Ontario.

Saeideh Fard

Saeideh Fard is CFO at Tulip Retail, a Toronto software scale up, the leader in retail store associate mobility, and a Kleiner Perkins portfolio company. Saeideh previously served as Group CFO at Traveledge, focusing on transformation following a string of global M&A events. Her career spans Marketwired (formerly owned by OMERS and sold to Nasdaq) and Sysomos (formerly owned by OMERS and sold to Meltwater), where she led as VP of Finance during periods of high organic growth and acquisition.

Samantha Yu

Samantha Yu has been a member advisor for over 11 years at CPA Ontario. Prior to joining CPA Ontario, Samantha worked both in industry and public practice.

Sarah McVanel

Sarah McVanel has excelled in the field of organizational development, training, and communications for over 15 years, and has extensive experience in the not-for-profit sector, including health care at a senior leadership level. She has overseen functions including training and development, organizational development, library series, public relations, change leadership, government relations, integration, and community partnerships. Sarah is also a published author and a passionate speaker.

Steve McCaughey, CPA

Steve McCaughey is Deloitte’s Senior Consulting Partner and Deloitte Canada’s Managing Partner of Technology and Transformation. As Managing Partner of Deloitte’s technology innovation centre, DSpace, Steve is involved in the development of Cloud AI, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing and Generation, Blockchain, Internet of Things, and Cybersecurity prototypes. He also oversees research on the Future of Work and the Future of Learning, and is a frequent speaker on Digital Innovation.

Tom Hardin

Tom Hardin spent much of his career as a hedge fund analyst in the United States. In 2009, as part of a cooperation agreement with the US Department of Justice, Tom assisted the government in understanding how insider trading occurred in the financial services industry. Known as “Tipper X,” Tom became one of the most prolific informants in securities fraud history. Since resolving his case in 2015, Tom has become an international corporate trainer and speaker on conduct risk and behavioural ethics.

Vladimir Napoleon