Carol Wilding, FCPA, FCA | President & CEO, CPA Ontario

Carol is President and CEO of CPA Ontario where she spearheads the qualifying and regulatory body for more than 101,000 CPAs and 20,000 CPA students. Prior to CPA Ontario, Carol worked in civic growth and policy as President of the Toronto Region Board of Trade; in healthcare, where she advanced research and philanthropy as President of Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation; and as President of Plan Canada. Carol has been named to the Top 100 List of Canada's Most Powerful Women and as one of the Top 25 Women of Influence by Women of Influence Inc. Currently, she serves as a director on the boards of the Sunnybrook Hospital Foundation, the Luminato Festival, and BFL Canada.

Jim Balsillie, FCPA | Founder & Chair, Council of Canadian Innovators & Centre for International Governance Innovation

Jim is a former Chairman and Co-CEO of Research in Motion (BlackBerry), a Canadian technology company he scaled from an idea to $20B in sales globally. He is the Co-Founder of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI), the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and the CIO Strategy Council. He chairs the boards of CCI and CIGI and is a Co-Chair of CIOSC. He is also the founder of the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Arctic Research Foundation and the Centre for Digital Rights. He is a member of the Global Advisory Board of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and an Honorary Captain of the Royal Canadian Navy.

John Ruffolo, FCPA, FCA | Founder & Managing Partner, Maverix Private Equity

John is the Founder and Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity, a firm focused on tech-enabled growth and disruption investment strategies across diverse industries. John chairs the Investment Committee, guides the strategy of the firm, and helps source and lead investment opportunities.John is also the Founder of OMERS Ventures and Co-Founder and Vice Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators. Under his leadership, OMERS invested over USD$500M in over 40 disruptive tech companies, including Shopify, Xanadu, Wattpad, Wave, and TouchBistro to name a few. John also formed OMER Platform Investments, and as its Executive Managing Director, he led investments in Purpose Financial, PointNorth Capital, District Ventures, OneEleven and ArcTern Ventures. 

Ralf Riekers | Former CFO, Top Hat

Ralf Riekers is a seasoned executive with more than two decades of financial and corporate leadership expertise. He has a proven track record of guiding SaaS companies on their transformative journey from inception to $100 million in revenues. Over his extensive career, spanning 13 years as a financial and operational executive at Eloqua and a decade as CFO at Top Hat, Ralf consistently demonstrated his skill in steering organizations through rapid growth, instilling financial discipline, and fostering operational excellence. Beyond his professional journey, Ralf's true passion lies in mentoring, coaching and advising the next generation of leaders and companies within the Canadian technology ecosystem, reflecting his commitment to nurturing and developing future talent. 

Matt Hodgson CPA, CGA | Chief Accounting Officer/CFO, Vidyard

Matt is a Chartered Professional Accountant (2008 - present) and previously held a Licensed Public Accountant designation in Ontario (2011-2013). Matt began his career at Ernst & Young where he spent 8 years in the Assurance and Advisory practice prior to moving into private industry. Currently Matt is the Chief Accounting Officer at Vidyard, a venture back, private Canadian software company specializing in B2B software as a service. Matt was previously the Chief Financial Officer of Vidyard for a 10-year period prior to moving into the CAO role in 2023. During this time Matt helped the company grow exponentially from a startup to its current scale and played a key role in raising $75M venture funding during that time. 

Lois Norris, FCPA, FCA | CFO, Northguide Inc.

Lois has over 30 years of financial leadership experience and is currently CFO of Northguide Inc.. Prior to her current role, Lois held the position of CFO of PopReach Corporation (dba Ionik), a Tier 1 Issuer on the TSX Venture Exchange. She was previously the CFO / COO of SSIMWAVE Inc, a video quality monitoring and optimization company which was acquired by IMAX in September 2022. Earlier roles included CFO of technology start-up and scale-up companies, as well as Communitech, an industry led innovation center. Her career also includes senior financial roles in food manufacturing, including both public and privately held companies, with international operations. 

Tom Seegmiller, CPA, CA | CFO, Texada Software

Tom is the CFO at Texada Software, a leading provider of Equipment Business Management solutions. He has experience operating software companies that are Private Equity and VC backed, as well as publicly traded. His passions lie in business partnering, acquisitions and integrations, assembling and coaching exceptional teams, as well as building high growth sustainable organizations.Tom's prior roles include senior Finance leadership roles at Vena Solutions, Miovision and OpenText. Tom has an Honours BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University and is a CPA, CA. 

Brice Scheschuk, CPA, CA | Managing Partner, Globalive Capital

Brice is the Managing Partner of Globalive Capital. He was a Co-Founder and CFO of Wind Mobile as well as CEO of Globalive Communications. Brice has over 25 years of experience building and operating companies at Globalive, Wind Mobile, Leitch Technology and PwC. He obtained his CPA, CA designation at PwC and Bachelor's in Finance from Dalhousie University. Brice served as a Maritime Surface Officer in the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve. Brice serves on numerous boards and advisory committees across public, private, and not-for-profit sectors, and is a frequent speaker on scale-up entrepreneurship and innovation. He is a Co-Founder of MindFrame Connect, a not-for-profit focused on elevating the craft of mentorship and improving entrepreneurial resiliency.

George Rossolatos, FCPA, FCA | Independent Advisor, Riverdale Capital Corporation

George has over 20 years of experience as a private equity investor and entrepreneur. George was the founding CEO of the Canadian Business Growth Fund (CBGF), a $545M growth capital investment fund backed by Canada's largest financial institutions, focusing on helping mid-market companies in Canada reach their full potential. Prior to CBGF, George was CEO of Avante Logixx Inc. from 2010-2017, where his mandate was to determine the public company's strategic direction and execute a successful operational turnaround and organic and acquisition growth strategy. Prior to Avante, he worked in the private equity industry for 10 years. He was a Partner and Co-Founder of TorQuest Partners Inc. from 2022-2010. As a CPA Fellow, George holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a B.Com. (Honours) from Queen's University and was recognized in 2007 as one of Canada's top 40 under 40. 

Brandon Nussey, CPA, CA | CFO, Coveo

Brandon Nussey is the Chief Financial Officer of Coveo. Prior to joining Coveo, Mr. Nussey was Chief Financial Officer of Lightspeed Commerce (from 2018 to 2022) and oversaw Lightspeed’s IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and subsequent listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Mr. Nussey was promoted to Chief Operating Officer of Lightspeed in May 2022 and held this position until joining Coveo. As Chief Operating Officer of Lightspeed, he was responsible for the operational execution of the business in its finance, operations, HR, legal, IT, payment, finserv and acquisition integration functions. He also led Lightspeed’s key strategic business partnerships and helped drive the successful execution of Lightspeed’s financial services strategies.