Don Tapscott, Executive Chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute, is one of the world’s leading authorities on the impact of technology on business and society. He has authored 18 books, including Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, which has been translated into over 25 languages. In 2016, with his son Alex, he co-authored the global bestseller Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies is Changing the World, now translated into 20 languages. According to the late, great Clay Christensen of Harvard Business School, it is “the book, literally, on how to survive and thrive in this next wave of technology-driven disruption.” Since then, Don has produced a blockchain book series with three books available to date: Supply Chain Revolution, Financial Services Revolution, and most recently, Platform Revolution, which has debuted as the #1 new book on Amazon under business management science. In 2017, Don and Alex co-founded the Blockchain Research Institute, whose 100+ projects are the definitive investigation into blockchain strategy, use cases, implementation challenges, and organizational transformations. The Blockchain Research Institute has since expanded globally, partnering with organizations around the world to launch five global partner offices, including BRI Africa, BRI Brasil, BRI Europe, BRI Middle East, and BRI Korea. Don is a member of the Order of Canada and in 2019, then ranked as the 2nd most influential Management Thinker by Thinkers50, joined Professor Christensen, Michael Porter, Peter Drucker, and others in the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame. He is an Adjunct Professor at INSEAD and Chancellor Emeritus of Trent University in Ontario where he served as Chancellor from 2013-2019. It is hard to imagine anyone who has been more prolific, profound, and influential in explaining today’s technological revolutions and their impact on the world.

Cleve Mesidor is the Executive Director of the Blockchain Foundation, an industry-wide crypto education platform. Previously, she was a Public Policy Advisor to the Blockchain Association.

A web3 expert working in crypto for about six year, she has been profiled on CNBC, ABC, NPR, Washington Post, Politico, TIME Magazine. Cleve is a Mayoral appointee to the DC Innovation and Technology Inclusion Council and sits on the Board of Directors of the Value Technology Foundation and Crypto Connect.

A Washington insider, she served in the Obama Administration and as a senior staffer in Congress. As a Presidential Appointee, she was Director of Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, where she advanced White House economic programs and national public-private partnerships to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. Her acumen in policy stems from her tenure on Capitol Hill as Communications Director for U.S. Representatives Betty McCollum and Barbara Lee, coordinating with Congressional leadership to launch major legislative initiatives.

Additionally, Cleve is author of “THE CLEVOLUTION: My Quest for Justice in Politics & Crypto.” She is a reputable and respected industry leader, as well as, a regular SXSW speaker and headliner at national blockchain conferences. She earned a Master’s of Arts degree from Howard University and started her career in broadcasting at CNN’s Washington Bureau.

W3B AWARDS HOST | Jon Erlichman is a senior television anchor with BNN Bloomberg. Jon hosts the program “Bloomberg Markets,” which airs weekdays on Bloomberg Television worldwide. Jon also sits in as an anchor for CTV National News. Erlichman’s career has included stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Along with his career at Bloomberg, he has also worked for ABC News and Fortune.

A visionary and pioneer in the development of blockchain technology since the industry’s formative times, Charles Hoskinson has been involved in blockchain since the very early days of Bitcoin and remains at the cutting edge of the industry.

A serial entrepreneur and leading industry commentator, Hoskinson is a co-founder and former CEO of Ethereum and co-founder and current CEO of the world’s leading blockchain engineering company, IOHK.

Now leading that company’s development of the next generation of blockchain systems – with the ability to meet the needs of global commerce and bring the benefits of blockchain technology to the global population, IOHK is involved in partnerships with governments and corporations across the globe.

Tamara Haasen is currently the President of Input Output Global, a decentralized technology company with the mission to improve the systems of the world for everyone, everywhere. As one of the early members of IOG she rose from a culture officer to HR Director and then Chief of Staff. During her time at IOG Tamara helped create company culture and design which breaks ground and explores new horizons in the world of blockchain technology and beyond. This endeavor is the most recent in a lifelong journey to create a global operating system based on integrity, truth, and equality. Previous to working at Input Output Global she was an early adopter of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. After matching her first wallet at Decentral in Toronto, Ontario she realized the far reaching implications of creating an open and immutable operating system for the world to exchange money, value, and information. Through her time in the crypto space she has met and collaborated with like-minded individuals who place a high value on intellectual honesty, life-long learning, and the unshakeable belief that the world can be made better through innovation. Her educational background includes a specialist degree in Political Science from the University of Toronto as well as a Juris Doctorate from Bond University. Furthermore she pursued the arts, training as an actor at The Circle in the Square Theater School which led to her performing in films like Boyhood and Tree of Life, as well as the television series Friday Night Lights. Alongside her duties as President of IOG she is co-designing a product management specialist masters program with Carnegie Melon University where she hopes to catalyze the work of emerging blockchain entrepreneurs and product managers. Ultimately she is interested in using the power of decentralized innovation and decision making protocols to help small and medium sized businesses collaborate with their customers, partners and stakeholders. The goal of this work is to create a digital economy and civilization which leads to greater human self determination and dignity.

Robert B. (Rob) Carter is Executive Vice President, FedEx Information Services and Chief Information Officer of FedEx Corporation. He is a member of the five-person Executive Committee, which plans and executes the corporation’s strategic business activities. Carter also serves as Co-President & Co-CEO of FedEx Services, the shared service entity responsible for Sales, Marketing, Information Technology and Customer Service. Carter joined FedEx in 1993 and has nearly 40 years of systems development and implementation experience. Carter is responsible for setting the technology direction of the FedEx applications, infrastructure and networks that provide around the clock and around the globe support for FedEx product offerings. He earned his bachelor’s degree in computer and information science from the University of Florida and his MBA from the University of South Florida. Carter has been awarded many industry accolades, including, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Fortune Magazine’s Executive Dream Team, Forbes Magazine CIO Innovation Award, Information Week’s Chief of the Year Award, and a charter inductee of CIO Magazine’s CIO Hall of Fame. Carter serves on the Board of Directors of New York Life and Pilot Flying J.

A proud Albertan technology entrepreneur, advocate, and leader, Koleya Karringten has a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities of product commercialization, ecosystem building and fostering inclusion in the technology industry. As the co-founder and CEO of Absolute Combustion, she has spent over a decade successfully designing and developing ground-breaking cleantech solutions for multiple industry sectors, including aerospace and Oil & Gas. She is a driving force in Canada’s blockchain technology industry as the Executive Director of the Canadian Blockchain Consortium (CBC) and co-founder/board member of the Canadian Blockchain Association for Women (CBAW). In her leadership role at the CBC, she has merged her passions for technology and social good to bring together blockchain companies, corporate leaders and the government to build the country’s largest blockchain ecosystem organization. An influential public speaker, writer, and community volunteer, Koleya strongly believes that uniting diverse voices behind a common goal is the path to creating a fairer, more sustainable and prosperous nation. Koleya also shares her passion for supporting women in STEM through her volunteer role the Vice Chair of Elevate Aviation a Not for Profit organization dedicated to supporting the education and training of women to have technical careers in Aviation.

Joel Dietz is a founder & CEO of MetaMetaverse, a serial entrepreneur who helped found several key initiatives in the cryptocurrency space, including Ethereum, MetaMask, the first smart contract educational channel, and the first academic work on cryptoeconomics. His research interests focus on the confluence of blockchain network topologies and swarm intelligence, especially how the principles undergirding decentralized organizations can be used to fuel global innovation. He also works on holonic philosophy, the evolution of jurisprudence, data-driven approaches to innovation, and smart city data architecture.

In late 2013, Anthony funded & co-founded Ethereum, the decentralized smart contract platform that at its peak hit $500 billion in market cap. Currently, he is the founder and CEO of Decentral Inc., a Toronto-based innovation hub & software development company focused on decentralized technologies. Decentral is the maker of Jaxx Liberty, a free non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet that has empowered millions of people worldwide with the tools they need to control their digital lives. Anthony’s most recent project is Andiami: A Quest for Liberty, a global tech project designed to power a user-controlled internet while complementing leading decentralized technologies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others. Andiami is to be unveiled at a special evening event in Toronto on November 7th.

Jeff John Roberts is the Crypto Editor at Fortune magazine. A former lawyer, Jeff has covered crypto and Bitcoin since 2013. He is the author of Kings of Crypto, an early history of Coinbase, and has written for the New York Times, the Economist and the Globe & Mail among other publications.

Global Sales and Operations leader for EY Blockchain. In this role, Clare is responsible for the leading the sales, GTM strategy and day to day product operations for EY Blockchain. Prior to joining EY Clare has worked for both PwC and IBM with a combined 25+ years of business consulting experience serving large global enterprises in Enterprise Strategy, Digital Transformation and SW Engineering Programs. As Vice President of IBM Corporate Strategy, Clare was responsible for developing IBMs future strategies for the Financial Services sector as well as new Industry platform solutions using Data & analytics, AI and Blockchain. Clare has a truly global perspective having lived and worked in several European countries as well as Japan, before moving to New York in 2016. Recognized as a motivational leader with a keen interest in the dynamics of bringing together diverse teams of people with different backgrounds to build innovative and creative solutions. During her time at IBM, Clare was a member of IBMs distinguished Leadership Academy and sat on the IBM Global Financial Services Sector Advisory Board.

Iliana Oris Valiente, CPA, CA is a Managing Director and Canada Innovation Lead at Accenture, working with senior executives and boards of F500 companies to support their strategic transformation journeys, leading multi-disciplinary teams across design, data, and the latest emerging technologies. In particular, Iliana is widely credited for being a trailblazer in the blockchain industry dating back to 2013. She’s advised fortune 500 companies, government leaders, regulators, and startups – often acting as a translator between web2 and web3 worlds. Iliana is a published author and sought-after speaker; has been featured in various print, radio, and television outlets; sits on the board of several prominent organizations; and is passionate about web3 + philanthropy, DAOs, venture investing, and travel.

Gennaro (Jerry) Cuomo is an IBM Fellow and one of the most prolific contributors to IBM’s software business. He is most recognized as one of the founding fathers of WebSphere Software, whose innovations defined WebSphere as the industry-leading application server serving over 80,000 customers. Cuomo has filed for over a hundred US patents. Jerry’s most visible patent is the first use of the “Someone is typing…” indicator used billions of times a day across all major instant messaging applications. At IBM, Cuomo has led projects in the areas of AI-Powered Automation, Blockchain, cloud & mobile computing and Web server performance and availability. Jerry is the co-author of Blockchain for Business, and in 2022 published two booked titled Think Blockchain and Art of Automation, both accompanied with podcasts of the same name.

Tahirou Assane has over 20 years of experience in leadership roles, civil engineering, strategy, transformation, and project management. As Director of Brightline at PMI, Tahirou oversees the activities under the three benefit pillars of thought and practice leadership, networking, and capability building. Through Brightline, Tahirou led the development of the Organizational Transformation Series, championed Brightline flagship event Strategy@Work, and pioneered the very first Digital Transformation in Action Conference. Prior to PMI, Tahirou worked as the deputy director of infrastructure and project management group in the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) supporting the successful implementation of peacebuilding, humanitarian, and development projects around the world. Before the United Nations, Tahirou was a senior project manager with the Ministry of Transportation in Ontario where he provided technical capabilities and expertise to ensure excellence in the delivery of complex highway projects with multi-disciplinary teams. Tahirou is a co-author of several book articles and reports including Blockchain-Driven Transformation (2021), The Transformation Playbook (2019), Transforming Beyond the Crisis (2020), and Perpetual Transformation (2022).

Sanjay is a visionary C-suite executive with a proven record of driving digital transformation across Fortune 500 companies making them cognitive enterprises for the future. With a unique ability to forge long-standing client relationships and ecosystem partnerships, he is a trusted advisor for clients to solve their most strategic challenges, mentor for future leaders and a global corporate citizen with a passion to leverage emerging technologies towards a greener and sustainable planet. Sanjay is currently the President & CEO of Fairfax Digital Services. In this role he is responsible for the digital transformation, business value creation and enabling journey to Sustainability of the Fairfax group companies globally. Previously Sanjay held leadership roles, he was the Chief Market Maker & Global Managing Partner – Sustainability Practice for IBM Consulting, Chief Executive Officer for Capgemini Canada, Managing Partner in Accenture’s North America Financial Services practice. Sanjay started his consulting career with Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) and was a Principal in the strategy and business transformation practice. Sanjay has represented companies at global forums – UN COP26, Glasgow; World Economic Forum, Davos. Sanjay serves on the boards of multiple non-profits – his roles include Chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute Advisory Board (founded by Don Tapscott); President of France Canada Chamber of Commerce (ON), Canada; Board Member of Trillium Health Partners Foundation, and Breast Cancer Canada. He is also on the Dean’s Advisory Council for Schulich School of Business at York University. Sanjay mastered Sustainable Business Strategy Program from Harvard Business School; Leadership Development Program from Booth School of Management; MBA from London. He is a PADI certified scuba diver & an avid golfer.

Riva is an accomplished global executive with an MBA from Cornell University, and 20+ years of leadership experience in business consulting and ESG with a passion for Sustainability and DEI. She has recently been decorated as Chevalier de L’Ordre Nationale du Merite for her hard work and dedication to growing the Franco Canadian buisness ecosystem in Ontario. Riva has executed multi Billion dollar transformational and growth programs at global organizations globally including in the United States, Canada, France, India, Philippines, Luxembourg, and China. Riva currently serves as the Founding Managing Director and Board Member of France Canada Chamber of Commerce, Ontario. In her role, she works across industires to expand Fortune 500 French companies across Canada, She is credited to start and Chair the Sustainability Think Tank as well as Women in Leadership network with leading CAC 40 companies such as BNP Paribas, Société General, LVMH, Lafarge, TD etc with programs like United Nations Women Empiwerment Program and Women in Governance as their special advisor. She has been at the forefront of creating ESG solutions for organizations like Christian Dior, Thales & Total. Prior to this, she worked with the Royal Bank of Canada leading the Strategy and Transformation – the Consulting arm of the bank as Head for a $2Bn Operational Transformation and M&A program running across multiple businesses within the bank. Before her 4-year tenure at RBC, Riva worked with Accenture Consulting for 11 years. Riva is an active member of the Business community in Canada and is recognized as a strong voice for diversity and inclusion through her efforts with United Nations Women’s Empowerment Program. She is a board member with the Breast Cancer Canada, and Les Dames Escoffier. Riva is also an Executive Member of the Board of the European Union Chamber of Commerce.

Tamara Goddard, of the Saulteau Nation, believes that access to clean water, housing, power and water are fundamental human rights, and are necessary for humanity to recreate balance with the Earth and all of life. She spent 25+ years studying various social and economic systems finding that many limit humanity’s abilities to flourish, by design. Her research and educational pursuits were fuelled by a vision at the age of 19, of a new economic model grounded in natural law and growth patterns of nature. As the CEO of Four Our Future, Tamara led multiple national papers highlighting the potential for blockchain and web3 technology to advance equitable wealth and resource distribution and incubated 400 Drums, an NFT project dedicated to illustrating how web3 technology can be used to break down social and economic barriers. Tamara is committed to holding space for the next generation of innovators to create a regenerative economic model upon which people and planet can thrive.

David (xa xa smanxwt) is of the Sylix/ Okanagan Nation. A culture keeper, David knows that all things are connected by the vibrations of light and sound and that knowledge is used in the creation of his handmade drums. David began building drums 20 years ago and his work is requested by clients internationally. Many hours over the course of weeks go into each drum whether large or small in order to produce the best drums possible. David is the COO at Four Our Future Economics and co-founder and lead artist at 400 Drums.

Alexis Pappas is the Chief Innovation Officer at blockchain and digital finance firm GuildOne, with a focus on carbon management, Web3 for social good, and disruptive solutions for a net-zero future. The Executive Director of the Canadian Blockchain Association for Women and a Director of the Canadian Blockchain Consortium, Alexis believes that inclusive change is the key to true global sustainability.

Alex Tapscott is an entrepreneur, writer, and seasoned capital markets professional focused on the impact of emerging technologies, such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies, on business, government, and society. For any project considering a more centralized architecture, be careful that your medicine does not kill the patient. Alex is the Managing Director of the Digital Assets Group at Ninepoint Partners, one of Canada’s leading independent asset management firms. Among other things, Ninepoint launched the world’s first carbon-neutral Bitcoin ETF (BITC:TSX). Alex is also co-author of the critically acclaimed non-fiction best-seller, Blockchain Revolution, which has been translated into more than 19 languages and has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide. His latest book, Digital Asset Revolution, was published June, 2022. Alex is sought after world-wide for his expertise by business and government audiences. He has delivered well over 200 lectures and executive briefings to business audiences at firms like Goldman Sachs (Talks at GS), Google, Allianz, IBM, Microsoft and Accenture, to name a few (Select speeches by Alex). He is consistently ranked as a top influencer in the blockchain industry. His TedX talk, Blockchain is Eating Wall Street has been viewed over 800,000 times. Alex’s writing has been featured in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, TIME, Fortune, and many other publications. In 2017, Alex co-founded the Blockchain Research Institute (BRI), a global think-tank investigating blockchain strategies, opportunities and use-cases. Previously, Alex was an executive at the investment bank Canaccord Genuity. Alex is a graduate of Amherst College (Cum Laude) and is a CFA Charterholder. He lives in Toronto.

Xiaochen is a Global Head of Innovation & Go-To-Market with AWS. In this role, he leads a team of both technical and operational staff in shaping AWS emerging technology and Web 3.0 related innovation offerings in the areas of digital assets, central bank digital currency, green finance and regulatory and supervisory technologies in supporting public sector financial institutions to achieve their missions in monetary policy, financial stability, economic growth, climate change and sustainable development.

Dean Skurka was formerly the Head of Finance and Compliance for FLC, and is currently the President and Interim CEO at WonderFi, a publicly company that operates Bitbuy and Coinberry. Since joining Bitbuy in 2018, Dean has led all finance, compliance, and regulatory strategy development and implementation and growth initiatives including all M&A transactions. Key milestones include completing Canada’s first Proof of Reserve & Solvency Report, structuring insured user bitcoin holdings 1:1, and growing cumulative transaction volume on the platform from $25M in 2018 to over $3B in 2021. Prior to FLC, Dean spent over 5 years working in corporate restructuring and insolvency, acting as a financial advisor to secured lenders and financial institutions. Dean holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Ryerson University, having majored in finance, and minored in accounting.

Dr. Céline Wong, PhD has been named Top 100 Women in Fintech and now leads the Philanthropy & Impact for VP Bank as well as the Digital Strategy offering. Prior VP Bank, she was with the Group Digital Strategy at UBS Singapore and Switzerland. Céline started her career as a management consultant at BCG and has since then pioneered new innovations in the financial industries. She holds a PhD in Politics and Finance and and MBA.

Simon is a Swiss lawyer with over 20 years of experience in banking, capital markets and international and European financial market regulation. He is the Managing Director of the Liechtenstein Bankers Association where he has been for more than 10 years. Simon’s passions are sustainable investments and all issues related to digitalisation. He is committed to the further development of sustainable investing in the financial services sector and beyond. In pursuit of this goal, the Bankers Association is also a co-initiator of the LIFE Climate Foundation Liechtenstein, which was established in 2009. Simon represents the Liechtenstein Bankers Association in various national and European bodies, including the European Banking Federation (EBF, www.ebf.eu), the European Parliamentary Financial Services Forum (EPFSF, www.epfsf.org), and the International Network of Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S, www.fc4s.org). He is involved in various committees of non-profit organisations on a part-time basis and serves as Chief Catalyst at BRI Europe.

Heather is Co-founder and CEO of Indicio, the market leader in developing open source Trusted Digital Ecosystems to verify and exchange high-value information. During her tenure, she has driven the company’s growth strategy, playing an instrumental role in expanding Indicio’s customer base and product roadmap, which includes launching Proven™, a complete, verifiable credential solution that makes it easy and cost-effective for companies and organizations to implement and scale open-source decentralized identity.

Under Heather’s leadership, Indicio has rapidly grown into the leading developer of decentralized identity solutions for global clients. Working with SITA, the leading provider of IT to the air transport sector, and the government of Aruba, Indicio developed an award-winning solution for travelers to share health data in a tamper proof, fraud-resistant privacy-preserving way. The resulting code was donated to Linux Foundation Public Health as Cardea, an open source solution for sharing health data. Indicio is now working with SITA to use the same technology to enable seamless travel through a Digital Travel Credential.

The decentralized identity technology built by Indicio solves the challenge of verifying data without having to check in with the source of that data or rely on a third party to store and check the data. This leads to a Trusted Digital Ecosystem where all parties can verify each other and the data they share, eliminating fraud, and doing so in a way that allows consent, provides privacy, and facilitates zero trust security. Indicio has built and is building Trusted Digital Ecosystems for a growing list of global clients in finance, healthcare, IoT, logistics, and the public sector.

Heather has built a company of the brightest minds in decentralized identity, each committed to delivering superlative engineering and customer service. Indicio’s team culture is internally collaborative so that the company can provide 360 degrees of contextualized client support — from business development to governance to marketing in addition to engineering. This holistic approach is the key to unlocking our clients’ successes.

Prior to Indicio, Heather led the Sovrin Foundation through its most significant period of growth, and she led research teams at KPMG and at telecommunications firm Neustar. Heather has an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and an MSC from Columbia; she earned her BA from Willamette. She served as chair of the National Press Foundation board of directors and as chair of the Congressional Correspondents Association.

Pradeep Goel, CEO of Solve.Care, has extensive expertise in blockchain, finance, technology and healthcare. He has been in the CEO, COO, CIO and CTO roles at various insurance, technology and healthcare companies over the last 30+ years. Pradeep was deeply involved in designing and building solutions for public programs such as Medicaid eligibility and enrollment, children health insurance program administration, Medicare claims, SNAP/TANF administration and payments, child Welfare program administration, and many others. Pradeep worked with the healthcare initiatives of the both the Bush and Obama administration to design and build several public program solutions under the Health Savings Act and Affordable Care Act. Prior to founding Solve.Care, Pradeep built 4 healthcare IT companies and has been at the top of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, INC500/5000 fastest growing companies lists multiple times. Pradeep was included in the 100 most promising entrepreneurs globally, complied by Goldman Sachs.

Mohamed El-Masri is a corporate finance professional with a focus on alternative investments, bitcoin mining, energy and asset tokenization. In early 2018 Mohamed embarked on a journey to change the dynamics of natural wealth creation to lower the barriers of wealth generation and strengthen the potential for wealth preservation. “I am proposing a radical change to the global socioeconomic construct, but not without serious considerations towards sound ESG frameworks. I find bitcoin to be the purest form of treasury that contributes to global energy sustainability and value creation for all”. Mohamed El-Masri is the founder and CEO of PermianChain Technologies Inc. and Direct & CEO of Brox Equity Ltd. Mohamed is the author of Oil, Natural Gas and Blockchain: How PermianChain Creates Value in Resource Finance and Sustainability, a report published by Canada’s Blockchain Research Institute (BRI) and included in Chapter 7 of the Digital Asset Revolution, a book by Alex Tapscott. Mohamed holds a Diploma in Sociology from Vanier College. He completed a number of political science and economics courses at Concordia University as an undergraduate before continuing to receive his Canadian securities qualifications from the Canadian Securities Institute (CSI). He holds a general securities qualification certificate with the Capital Market Authority (CMA) of Riyadh, KSA. He is certified in Corporate Finance Regulations with the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (CISI) of UK.

Roanie Levy is an internationally recognized champion of creator rights. Strategic and forward-thinking, she bridges the worlds of intellectual property law, content rights management and exponential technologies to represent and advocate for creators and rightsholders.

Roanie serves as CEO and President of Access Copyright, a collective that distributes millions of dollars annually in licensing royalties to creator and publisher affiliates. She also leads Prescient, Access Copyright’s creator-focused innovation lab dedicated to exploring the future of rights management and content monetization through Blockchain and other technologies.

Prior to joining Access Copyright, she held key positions on major policy files at Canadian Heritage and Industry Canada, and as a private sector management consultant for Fortune 500 companies. An Intellectual Property lawyer by vocation, Roanie has been called to the bar in Ontario and was formerly a member of the Quebec bar. She is fluently bilingual.

Peyman is Chief Technology Advisor at Virgo Group, the parent company of VirgoCX one of the top Cryptocurrency exchanges in Canada. Peyman provides strategic advisory on Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) and Blockchain architecture to drive tech scale-up, reliability, low latency, security, and high availability.
Peyman is Chief Technology Officer of Blanc Labs and is responsible for leading all aspects of technology strategy, innovation, and delivery across all tech verticals. As a seasoned technology leader in Financial Services, Peyman specializes in the delivery of large-scale technology transformations in capital markets, banking, open banking, digital assets, and the FinTech landscape. Peyman established a bootcamp style training program for Blockchain engineering and development known as BL Digital Academy.
Previously, Peyman led the Toronto Stock Exchange Global Technology as Chief Technology Delivery Officer for several years. As a member of the TMX Executive Operating Committee, he was responsible for technology delivery across all TMX Group business lines and operations of all mission-critical trading and clearing platforms. In recognition of his leadership of large-scale Agile Transformation at TMX, Peyman was named a top finalist for the “Canadian CIO of the Year” award by IT World Canada in 2019. Peyman’s first exposure to Blockchain technology started in 2016 by evaluating the Central Counterparty Clearing CCP real-time Clearing & Settlement capabilities and securities tokenization concepts.
Peyman is an ICD.D designation holder and currently serves as a Director on the Board of Directors CIO Association of Canada.

Ashley is an energetic and ambitious Girlboss who quit the corporate 9-5 world to pursue her love of Crypto, travel and empowering others. She’s on a mission to help others create generational wealth through Crypto and with over 8 years of experience in Business and Direct Sales, she has built a global brand with The Crypto Strategy Academy. Leading the industry as one of the top Crypto Educators in Canada and is the co-founder of Crypto Babes, a community for women learning, working and building in Web3, which has over 22,000 members, Ashley has shared the stage with celebrities such as Venus Williams, Michelle Williams, Krista Kim and more. Ashley has spoken at countless conferences around the world and works in the community to highlight underrepresentation communities.

Layne Lafrance co-created CryptoKitties, the first application of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), in 2017

Walid Al Saqqaf is the CEO and co-founder of Rebalance Earth is a global ecosystems services platform for valuing and funding a living nature to combat climate change, biodiversity loss and lifting communities out of poverty. Walid started off in the corporate world at Barclays Corporate Banking in 1998. As a serial entrepreneur he has co-founded 6 start-ups of which one had a successful acquisition. Walid is an industry associate at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies and is a proud father of 2 little amazing daughters.

Damu is the Emerging Solutions Leader for Web3 & Metaverse at Amazon Web Services. He brings nearly 20 years of experience building solutions that harness emerging technologies within the domestic US and internationally. He’s built emerging solutions in a variety of industries including Financial Services, Nuclear Energy, Healthcare, and other hyperscalers alike. He has also authored an Amazon Best Selling book within the Blockchain domain. He spearheads efforts to help our customers get ahead in the Metaverse leveraging the Metaverse Maturity Journey framework he developed.

Marcus O’Dair is a writer, consultant and executive coach who specialises in enterprise, innovation and the creative economy. As a writer, Marcus is the author of Distributed Creativity: How Blockchain Will Transform the Creative Economy (Palgrave 2019), written as researcher in residence at Digital Catapult. His previous book, Different Every Time (Serpent’s Tail 2014), is a biography of the British musician Robert Wyatt. A book of the week on BBC Radio 4, it was also shortlisted for the Penderyn prize. As a consultant, Marcus has delivered projects for clients including Music Managers Forum, IE Music, Linux Foundation, Red Bull Music Academy, European Jazz Network, Domino Records, Serious, Somethin’ Else, University of Brighton and Blockchain Research Institute. He has delivered training to music industry figures in West Asia, creative hub leaders from West Africa and cultural leaders from Mexico. He also developed an entrepreneurship e-learning platform for Microsoft and has written a number of industry-facing reports. As an executive coach, Marcus works with clients from MBA students to design and fashion entrepreneurs. He helps them both to manage creative projects and to do so in creative ways. He is particularly interested in balancing profit and purpose. Marcus is currently Associate Dean of Knowledge Exchange at University of the Arts London (UAL), consistently named the best university in the world for undergraduate art and design education. In this role he leads knowledge exchange for 200 academics, working with partners from the NHS to Nike via IBM, the British Council and the Institute of Coding. He has been awarded over a million pounds in funding for his own academic work. He is a Fellow of Enterprise Educators UK and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Marcus previously worked in music and media industries.

Vandana Taxali (B.A.Sc., J.D., LL.B, C.Arb) is an art-tech entrepreneur and lawyer practising in the area of intellectual property, entertainment, art, technology, blockchain and NFTs. She is the founder of Artcryption, a platform to protect, manage and licence art, digital assets and IP with NFTs and blockchain technology. She is also an art arbitrator with the International Court of Art at the Hague. Vandana serves on the Standard Council of Canada blockchain committee and the Art Identity Standard, NFT Working Group which is a consortium of art industry leaders developing a universal art ID standard. Vandana is also a consultant for digiart.ca to promote the education of NFTs and innovative technologies like AR, VR and blockchain to artists funded by the Canada Council.

Christof Straub started his professional career at the beginning of the 1990ies as multi-platinum awarded artist, music producer and songwriter. Since 2008, as serial entrepreneur in digital businesses, he has been working on the disruption of the traditional music industry via digitalization, with a focus on fair artist remuneration and fan participation. Christof is the founder of Global Rockstar, a Web3 Music Company enabling fans to become shareholders of hit songs.

Aline is a Civil & Environment Engineer who started her career path in Lebanon and moved to Doha in 2013. Her experience is quite diversified thanks to the different roles and tasks she led across the construction industry throughout the past years. She is currently the Managing Director of Konnect&Co, a supply chain management company with branches in KSA, Qatar, UAE and Lebanon.

Aline launched BRI Middle East in May 2021 in exclusive partnership with the think-tank leaders the Blockchain Research Institute in Canada. In a matter of a year and as the Managing Partner at BRI Middle East, Aline has brought the Blockchain topic to key business and government leaders in Qatar and the region while probably materially changing the situation there. It is precisely her great interest in this new technology that is pushing her to expand to other GCC countries as is currently the case. BRI Middle East principally aims at leading the Blockchain Revolution in the region through research, education and actual adoption of the technology.

Aline holds a BS degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the American University of Beirut (2011) and several certificates such as “The Blockchain Revolution from Insead and The Blockchain Research Institute” (2020); “The Entrepreneurial Mindset from The Babson University” (2020) and Supply Chain Finance and Blockchain Technology from the New York Institute of Finance (2020). Aline has proved to be a women advocate by leading women-dominated companies across both construction and tech sectors in the Middle East. Supporting women by employing and empowering them is what Aline always prioritizes

Ian currently holds the title of Head DLT/ Blockchain in the Innovation team at Standard Bank. He collaborates and partners with specialists and organisations locally and internationally as well as Standard Bank teams to determine how this emerging technology can be leveraged best for enhanced efficiency and controls including focusing on new business models focusing on customer first. He also performs in the role of Training Officer for the CA Graduate Training Program.

Carl Amorim – Civil Engineer from the Mackenzie University School of Engineering, MBA in Finance from the Brazilian Capital Markets Institute (IBMEC), a post-graduate degree in Marketing from the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM) and Master in Business Strategy and Ph.D. student in Blockchain by Mackenize University. Professor and serial DAO Entrepreneur, working for 12 years with the articulation of networked projects and the last 4 experimenting with Blockchain-based Distributed Organizations. He is one of the initiators of Prospera, the first Brazilian Autonomous Distributed Organization (DAO) based on Blockchain. It launched the first Public Crypto Asset Offering in Brazil and the first initiative of its kind in the world that has already distributed revenues to its participants in 2017. Co-editor and translator of the book Blockchain Revolution by Don and Alex Tapscott, a project in which he articulated an unprecedented process of translation and collaborative editing with the registration of unique digital copies on the Blockchain and the use of a crypto asset to remunerate the professionals involved with book sales shares. He is currently CEO of the Blockchain Research Institute Brazil, representing the world’s most important blockchain research organization in the country and also the creator of Kairos first DAOs building framework and platform. Event organizer and curator: Blockchain Connect, Blockchain Week Brasil, BRI Brasil for Good. Speaker and Professor, presents the series of lectures and Workshops Blockchain Revolution, with topics such as Agribusiness, Government, Industry, Supply Chain among others. Translator and Coordinator of the Postgraduate Course in Blockchain at FGV and the Specialization Course in Blockchain at INSEAD University in partnership with BRI and Coursera in Brazil. Voluntarily he was Superintendent of the Brazilian Association of Cryptoeconomics – ABCripto, for 2018/19, and Blockchain director at the Federation of Industries of São Paulo FIESP.

Csilla is currently VP Strategy at BTP, an enterprise blockchain company, a GBBC Ambassador, and a regular blogger and speaker on the subject of blockchain and associated technologies.

She created and curates the DLT Landscape, an open-source market segmentation initiative, inspired by the growing complexity of the evolving distributed ledger technology market, and the need to address confusion over terms, as well as where specific offerings and projects fit.

Prior to joining BTP, Csilla was a technology industry analyst at market research and advisory firm 451 Research – now part of S&P Global Market Intelligence – covering the enterprise blockchain space, among other emerging technology areas.

Csilla also led market intelligence and business modeling work at a number of EU-funded research, development and innovation projects, and is co-author of several forward-looking scientific papers, and studies prepared for the European Commission, in the area of emerging information technologies.

Csilla is multilingual and holds an MSc in economics, and business and management consulting. She is also a former elite athlete, with a strong track record in beach volleyball and taekwondo.

As Founder and CEO at Innovation Unknown Inc., Mario Voltolina works closely with progressive organizations to elevate individual and team results by institutionalizing innovation, changing mindsets, and embedding a creative approach into culture. The company has developed, refined and presently leverages a methodology that has proven to drive sustainable innovation in organizations. Passionate about solving deep-rooted problems with creative solutions, fostering the development of teams, and delivering measurable results, Mario has earned a reputation for merging his strong business acumen and technology expertise to drive team and organizational performance. Prior to launching Innovation Unknown, Mario served as a senior executive at several progressive organizations, most recently as Executive Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer at Canada Health Infoway, an organization with a mandate to improve the health of Canadians through innovative digital products and services. Over the course of his career, Mario has placed an elevated focus on driving performance gains through the design of product, approach and process introductions and improvements that are measurable and impact bottom-line results. As a strategic and visionary leader, he has played an instrumental role in spearheading numerous innovative initiatives that have fostered operating efficiencies and moved organizations forward, including building a new national Health Information Exchange platform, creating an AI implementation framework, and creating a toolkit to implement post-quantum cryptography in healthcare.

Charles Spent 15 years in the Medical Device Space before becoming interested in BlockChain and Smart Contract Technology. He then Designed the First Smart Contract based Procure to Pay platform in Healthcare and executed the First Smart Contracts ever in the Surgical Suite.

Matthew has taken diverse roles and tasks in finance, IT, and gaming industries before he made his transition to the blockchain industry in 2016. His past involvement in blockchain projects includes EOS-based multi-chain, Ethereum-based project, BNB Smart Chain-based P2E game project, and a public blockchain platform. He is currently the strategy director of BOSagora, the first successful global ICO launch of a public blockchain project in S. Korea. He studied Commerce and Economics at the University of Toronto and thereafter received BCom degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University. He started his career as an analyst at FIDES Asset Investment Management and later as an IR specialist in the IT and gaming industries. He is currently involved in BOSagora’s numerous projects including the blockchain-integrated Kiosk, BOSagora platform, metaverse, and NPO project WSO (We Save Oceans, www.wesaveoceans.org/en).

Dwayne Matthews is a “future of education” strategist and innovation evangelist. He converges and shares knowledge on the future of education, disruptive technology, and the evolution of work. Matthews is the Head of School, Innovation & Partnerships, at Ontario Virtual School. OVS has over 20K active students, a 98% university acceptance rate, and a 99% 5 star Google rating from students and parents Matthews is also an XPRIZE Education Domain Brain Trust Advisor and advises the XPRIZE Global Visioneering Team on the education prizes and challenges that are presented to benefactors like Elon Musk, Sir Richard Brandson and senior members of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dwayne is also the founder of TomorrowNow Learning Labs, which creates future focused learning lab models that emphasize personalized learning, student success innovations and connection points to the digital transformation of the economy. Matthews has addressed the UN on issues and opportunities around digital literacy, cognitive abilities and the 54 countries of Africa. Matthews has also addressed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the importance of education transformation and its relationship to national prosperity and regional security. Dwayne is the former president of NeuroEdX, a company that uses neurotechnology to prepare students for the exponential growth of the 4th industrial revolution. Matthews also served as the Senior Education Lead for the Faubert Applied Research Center. The Faubert Applied Research brings together researchers and experts in cognitive human performance from industry, government, and academia to bridge the gap between research and unmet real life applications. In addition Matthews was the Canadian Executive Director of an intelligence firm and focused on finding disruptive and future looking technologies for the Fortune 500. Some of his clients included senior and executive leaders from Barrick Gold, Suncor, P&G, GSK, Magna and members of the DuPont Family. Ÿ Dwayne can be seen on national Canadian television on CTV’s Your Morning and The Marlyn Denis show. Over the last 24 months Matthews has had over 1.8 million views on his collective social media posts focused on the relationship between the future of work and education. Dwayne works to review future trends in education that are driven by technological advancement. Dwayne’s career path over almost two decades has afforded him an incredibly unique and privileged perspective on future technologies and its fundamental impact on education and work.

Julie’s personal mission is to share her experience with others about building immersive technologies, and inspire how to change the way we teach and learn through spatial awareness. Her hope is to empower others to create & design with spatial technology for good, and to think and act in a socially, economically and environmentally responsible way. Julie is also Co-Founder of XR Women, leading women globally, meeting weekly, virtually learning from one another about immersive development and applications with a diverse community.

Prof. Dr. Horst Treiblmaier is a Professor in International Management at Modul University Vienna, Austria. He received a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems in 2001 from the WU Vienna and worked as a Visiting Professor at Purdue University, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), University of British Columbia (UBC), and the University of Technology in Sydney (UTS). He has more than twenty years of experience as a researcher and consultant and has worked on industry projects with Microsoft, Google, and the United Nations. His research interests include the economic and business implications of blockchain, metaverse, token economy, cryptoeconomics, as well as methodological and epistemological problems of social science research. Currently he is a research associate at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies of the University College London, a member of the Blockchain Center of Excellence (University of Arkansas) and a research fellow of the Digital Euro Association (DEA). He has edited four books on the implications of blockchain with Palgrave Macmillan and Springer (Business Transformation through Blockchain Vol. I + II (2019); Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology Use Cases: Applications and Lessons Learned (2020); Blockchains and the Token Economy (2022)). His research has appeared in academic journals such as Information Systems Journal, Structural Equation Modeling, Frontiers in Blockchain, The Data Base for Advances in Information Systems, Annals of Tourism Research, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Information & Management, Telematics and Informatics, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, Journal of Global Information Management, Schmalenbach Business Review, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, International Journal of Logistics Management and Business & Information Systems Engineering.

Dr. Michelle Lui is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in Educational Technology. She received a Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development from CTL in 2015. Since then, she has held two postdoctoral fellowships, first at the University of Illinois at Chicago (2015-17) and then at the University of Toronto Mississauga’s Institute of Communication, Culture and Information Technology (2018-2022). Her research centers on designing and evaluating digital learning technologies for developing deep understandings and collaborative scientific practices, with a focus on immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR). Her interdisciplinary design and research work draws from over a decade of industry and academic experience in digital media design, education, computing, and media studies.

Henry M. Kim is an Associate Professor at the Schulich School of Business, York University. Having founded blockchain.lab in 2016, Prof. Kim is one of the most prominent blockchain academics in Canada. He is the Co-Lead on a $600,000 research project on “Digital Currencies” that is engaging academia, Bank of Canada, financial institutions, and startups to investigate Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), cryptocurrencies, and blockchain. He is the co-organizer of the Fields Institute Lecture Series on Blockchain and the IEEE Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies. He has authored more than 30 publications on blockchain-related topics ranging from cryptocurrencies, agriculture, electricity microgrids, supply chain management, and payment systems. He has engaged in research projects with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, The United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and E-Business (UN/CEFACT), Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Don Tapscott’s Blockchain Research Institute, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the US. He has also been on the executive team of several Canadian startups and have advised startups and SMEs in Canada and internationally.

Jim Slotta holds the President’s Chair in Knowledge Technologies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. For the past 25 years, he has led research studies of K-12 STEM inquiry, including powerful new roles for technology-enhanced learning environments. These studies have advanced a pedagogical model known as Knowledge Community and Inquiry (KCI), in which students and teachers collaborate as a learning community to engage in STEM inquiry projects. Slotta currently directs the ENCORE lab (http://encorelab.org) in which KCI curriculum and technology environments are developed and researched. Previously, Slotta worked at the University of California, Berkeley, and served as Associate Dean for Research in the Boston College School of Education (2016-18). During his career, he has served as PI or co-I on grant funded projects totaling more than $40 Million, supervised more than 20 doctoral students to completion, and published hundreds of manuscripts and proceedings papers. He is an experienced evaluator of educational programs and research projects. He recently led a team that designed and administered a comprehensive audit of In 2018 he led a team that evaluated the presence of computational and design thinking within the International Baccalaureate’s K-12 curriculum, including a survey of teachers and curriculum leaders from more than 5000 schools worldwide. Slotta has experience working in the African context, including a prior NIH-funded project to develop a Community Healthworker Assistive Technology (CHAT).

Kalina has considerable experience in IT project management, e-commerce, and DLT, with a focus on new and developing markets. She is a certified PSPO and speaks English, French, and Chinese. Currently, she is managing the business operations at INDUSTRIA Technology.

Chief Legal Officer for Input Output Global, a technology company that was one of the creators of the Cardano Blockchain; Special Counsel and Head of Blockchain & Fintech Practice Group for the law firm Sullivan & Worcester

Sarah Boughanmi has 15+ years of experience in international law in over 35 countries. With her versatile combination of Common Law and Civil Law , Business , Investment, and Portfolio Management education and expertise, Me Boughanmi has been serving the Web 3.0 ecosystem since 2018. She advised businesses on over 1,500 Deals totaling more than $100 million. Me Boughanmi has often been called upon to serve as CEO, CLO, COO for $100M+/Yr companies. Industries served: • Web 3.0 • •Business Finance • •International Commercial transactions Technology • •FinTech E-Commerce

Aaron has been a serial entrepreneur for the last decade making his entrepreneurial debut in the Telecom industry launching his own successful VoIP company. He then became enamoured with everything cryptocurrency and blockchain, where all of his core strengths came together as a perfect fit for for the world of Decentralized Finance (DeFi).

He spent years investing from the sidelines, accumulating and holding all the top cryptos before deciding to put his years of programming, developing, and entrepreneurial enthusiasm to use in the up-and-coming world of DeFi.

Aaron is now known in the crypto world for his ingenuity and vision to continuously improve upon existing offerings and deliver new and exciting opportunities in DeFi. As the founder of the first ever Tomb Finance fork, Bomb.Money, Aaron’s contributions were immediately embraced by the DeFi community with thousands of people subsequently forking Bomb.Money.

Aaron learned that although DeFi offers such incredible opportunities, there is a significant barrier to entry – mostly due to consumer lack of understanding and trust. This is what sparked the idea for PegHub which combines ease of use with high yields on top cryptos only available in DeFi. Aaron quickly put together a team of crypto enthusiasts and professionals from around the world to help deliver on his vision to offer the best investment opportunity in all of DeFi. PegHub’s mission is to become the safest and largest staking protocol in the world by 2025, and Aaron’s vision and leadership will be leveraged to achieve this goal.

PegHub – Crypto Staking Revolutionized.

Nav Gupta known as Mr Metaverse, is the CEO and Founder of Chaarmi Worlds Inc. building the “WordPress” of Metaverse Galaxy Creation!

Tim Sweet is the Head of Technology Delivery at Interac. He has worked as a leader, CTO, technology architect and IT professional for 25 years in the identity, fintech, and eHealth spaces. Prior to Interac Tim was the CTO of the Digital Identity Lab of Canada. Tim values integrity, curiosity, transparency, and clarity. His desire to dream big and take the right risks at the right time ensure success both in his professional endeavors, delivering complex technology solutions, and in his personal life as skipper of his own sailboat having recently circumnavigated the globe.

Usman Sheikh is a partner in Gowling WLG’s Toronto office. Named in 2018 as one of the “Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers” in Canada by Canadian Lawyer and for three consecutive years (2020 to 2022) as the top fintech lawyer in Canada by Chambers, he serves as the national head of the firm’s Blockchain & Smart Contracts Group. Usman’s practice focuses on providing legal advice on blockchain advisory mandates, including cutting-edge token sales, crypto asset trading platforms, DeFi, metaverse, NFT projects and others. He also specializes in securities litigation and crypto litigation. His clients include Canada’s largest banks, several co-founders of Ethereum, nine of the largest cryptocurrencies in the world, as well as several blockchain pioneers. Most recently, he was recognized in Toronto Life’s The Influentials 2021 list as “Crypto Royalty” and counsel to the “crypto industry’s who’s who”. Since 2019, Usman has served as an Adjunct Professor with the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and teaches a course called “Blockchain, Digital Assets and the Law”.

Manavi Garg is the Head of Strategic Partnerships at dClimate. Manavi previously worked with Deloitte’s Economic Advisory and Strategy and Operations teams, where she worked on ESG projects, in addition to leading other business development and strategy initiatives for c-suite clients. Manavi has been following blockchain technology for many years, having completed a thesis on understanding the relation between social media activity and price volatility of Bitcoin. Manavi has been an active volunteer since a young age, having led initiatives for women and young girls, in increasing awareness about technology and career opportunities for women in business. Manavi is also a recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh International Award, involving work with local communities around sustainability, improving conditions of living and engaging in social projects among other activities, which led to Manavi’s interest in the ESG and sustainability space. Manavi has also worked in the public sector at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Canadian Dairy Commission on policy decisions around Canada’s natural assets. Manavi continues to pave the way for sustainability and blockchain through her recent appointment to the ESG committee with the Canadian Blockchain Consortium.

+8 Years in Blockchain. Founder of +1.5 billion usd sustainability focused company 5irechain.
+24 Research Papers in Blockchain/Deeptech.
+70 Portfolio Companies.
+3 Patents in emerging technology.
Advisor at Techstars , India Accelerator & Consensys Venture Partner.

Pratik Gauri is a serial Indian social entrepreneur, investor, public speaker and writer widely known as the Creator of the 5th Industrial Revolution. He has been championing the UN Sustainable Development Goals and helping transition the world from a for-profit economy to a for-benefit economy for more than a decade. As the Founder & CEO of 5ire.org ( pronounced FIRE ), Pratik is responsible for the day to day operations of the firm and its strategic efforts. As a young visionary leader, Pratik believes that the service of humanity and social good can work hand-in-hand with business and is on a mission to prove the thesis of 5IR ( 5th Industrial Revolution ) – “You can make more money if you do good to the world.” Pratik has founded 8 companies prior to founding 5ire, which is a blockchain ecosystem that brings forward Sustainability, Technology & Innovation to build the 5th industrial revolution. 5IRE ecosystem has a layer 1 chain, 5ire exchange, NFT / Metaverse marketplace, 5ire Wallet, and 5ire Capital ( VC fund of 5ire ) with a goal to impact 1B+ humans by 2025 using blockchain / web3 / NFTs / Metaverse / DeFi. Pratik is also a Partner at 5th Element Group -global impact management consultancy to implement and scale omniwin solutions to impact millions of humans by mobilising millions of dollars. Pratik was named Creative Entrepreneur of the year – Startup by Entrepreneur India magazine and Entrepreneur of the year 2020 by Indian Achievers’ Forum. He has been recognised as Entrepreneur 35 Under 35, TIMES 40 Under 40, ET Now Leaders of Tomorrow, Greenbiz Global 30 Under 30, AsiaOne 40 Under 40 Most Influential Leaders, British Petroleum Scholar, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, Ambassador at One Young World, Al Gore’s Climate Leader, Fellow at Startup Leadership Program, Winner of UNLEASH 2019, Asia’s top 50 Voices by Earth Day Network, and Changemaker at Global Action on Poverty.

Marc Lijour is the Vice-President leading Capacity and Innovation Readiness initiatives at the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC). Certified educator with experience in several continents, he worked as Education Officer at the Ontario Ministry of Education, advising on policies such as the revision of the Technological Education curriculum (2009) and the first RFP framework to procure Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) government-wide. Marc was instrumental on administrating key programs such as the launch of the Ontario e-learning Strategy and Ontario’s equity and inclusive education strategy. Ten years ago, Marc made the jump to private consulting at Cisco to accelerate the digital transformation of the education sector, and later all other sectors, as digital technology became the driver of disruptive innovation and a major driver of competitiveness and job creation. He joined ICTC to develop research-informed and evidence-based capacity building programs to help Canadians enjoy a rewarding career in the digital economy. The iAdvance framework has been highlighted in a recent OECD report as a best workforce development practice to upskill and reskill for jobs in AI, Blockchain, IoT, Robotics, 5G, and other emerging fields. For the last 6 years, Marc has particularly focused on blockchain/Web3 technologies. He contributed to building the consulting arm at ConsenSys, launching the first college program for Blockchain Developers in Canada, founding DeFi Toronto, and heading IEEE Blockchain in Canada. He contributes to several industry program advisory committees (PACs) for leading postsecondary institutions in Canada. Marc holds degrees in Mathematics, Computer Science, and the Management of Technology and Innovation (MBA). He serves on the board of multiple not-for-profit organizations in the Tech industry, such as La French Tech Toronto and TechConnex.

Dale Chrystie is business fellow and blockchain strategist for FedEx, based in the Memphis area. He also serves as president and chairman of the BITA Standards Council, is a member of the Blockchain Research Institute in Toronto, and is also an Executive Advisory Board member of the University of Arkansas Blockchain Center of Excellence. In 2019, he was awarded the inaugural Enterprise Blockchain Award in Enterprise & Industry Leadership and is a global thought leader on the business and strategy aspects of Web3, blockchain, and emerging technologies. His focus on ‘coopetition’ in the blockchain space continues to challenge conventional wisdom and typical corporate and regulatory culture, and his perspective in that space is well documented in academic and other publications. Dale’s career in transportation began more than 30 years ago, and in addition to his work leading the first proof of concept at FedEx using blockchain technology in 2017, he has extensive experience in strategy, quality, process improvement, and standards development, and is a proud graduate of the University of Arkansas.

Fadwa is the founder of One37 ID which delivers the building blocks of Web3 enabling businesses and users to “Connect, Exchange and Verify” trusted & reusable data. Fadwa’s vision is to usher in the next iteration of digital transformation enabling businesses to be Web3-Ready in 24 hours or less by providing ready-to-deploy solutions designed to work with One37 decentralized digital wallet; a mobile application that allows the storage and sharing of verifiable credentials, such as digital identity, medical and financial records, and others. Fadwa is a serial entrepreneur, having launched two startups and five greenfield telecom operators across Africa and Asia. She was vital in launching large telecom operations in countries such as Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates. She is highly active in the Women’s Entrepreneurs Community where the topics of AI, Data Analytics & Blockchain are high on the agenda. Fadwa is the Recipient of the 2022 RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards for the Ones To Watch Award recognizing the country’s leading female entrepreneurs.

Dave’s technology career spans 30 years and has mainly been focused on engineering, designing and building core transactional systems for some of the world’s leading fortune 500 companies. With key strengths in leadership and management of multi-talented teams he has excelled in moving the needle continuously by ensuring practical deployments of technology with a direct impact on improving operational workflows along with providing an enhanced client experience as the ROI. Dave has been an influential change agent for technological improvements, such as advanced planning and scheduling, manufacturing, distribution/supply chain and financial applications. Over the years he has been recognized for his core strengths in aligning technology for business improvements. With exposure to multi diverse markets, engineering, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, financial investment.

Loudon Owen is CEO of DLT Labs Inc., which has developed a leading platform for digital transformation, providing ERP on Blockchain as a Service. DLT is recognized as a world leader in blockchain-enabled supply chain and logistics solutions, and its anchor account is Fortune #1 Walmart and its global ecosystem of suppliers. Loudon has over 30 years of building businesses around the globe as an operator, venture capitalist, and lawyer. He previously co-founded McLean Watson Capital, one of Canada’s premier venture capital firms. In particular, he has decades of experience in technology ventures, including 3D imaging software, deep mining technology, xml data management, and now distributed ledger technology. A champion of intellectual property rights he is recognized as one the world’s leading intellectual property strategists (IAM 300). He holds a BA (University of Toronto), a JD (Osgoode Hall Law School), and an MBA (INSEAD).

Founder of web3 strategy and comms advisory supporting DAOs, companies and protocols with brand positioning, communications strategy, partnerships, events, and content. Focus areas include emerging tech, DAOs & tooling, digital identity, and all things web3. Active angel investor in early-stage, futurist technologies such as Alchemy (dev tooling), Clarity (DAO tooling), The Culture DAO (Disney of AI), Arkive (web3 museum), iVirtual (identity), Transcrypts (identity) and Really (coming soon). DAO Contributor to MetaGammaDelta, Boys Club Crypto, RADAR, Forefront, Baddies in Tech & more. Previously founded, bootstrapped and successfully exited marketing and communications firm scaling from zero to a profitable multi-seven figures working with clients like Unilever, L’Oréal Paris and Toyota.

Larry Arnstein was the CTO and co-founder of AirTerra, which was acquired by American Eagle Outfitters as part of the formation of Quiet Platforms. Larry left his faculty position with the University of Washington’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering to found his first startup company in 2003, which turned out to be the start of an entrepreneurial career spanning 19 years and four startup companies. The most notable and relevant of these was Larry’s contribution to the adoption of RFID technology for end-to-end visibility in the global retail supply chain, leading to Impinj becoming a public company in 2016. Larry is currently a Vice President of Open Networks at Quiet Platforms, focused on advanced technologies and collaborative, networked business models that increase efficiency and sustainability in the retail supply chain.

Ivan is a tech entrepreneur who has worked on creating products from ‘zero’ to massive growth, he co-founded MetaMetaverse along with Joel and Oleh less than a year ago and acts as the CTO within the business. Ivan has a wealth of proven experience in successfully managing 100+ person engineering teams for Fortune 500 customers, Ivan has grown fond and worked in a multitude of companies in the Web 3.0, NFTs, Blockchain, AI, Cloud, Enterprise Apps, and Quantum Computing spaces. In the past, he’s also worked in the tech behind Media and Entertainment, Finance, Healthcare, and Retail business domains.

After a long career helping businesses solve problems with technology, I am honoured to be directing the team that has designed, developed, built and delivered the technology to support Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine roll-out. Working with vaccine experts, internal resources, external system integrators, vaccine manufacturers and 3rd party logistics service providers, the team continues to ensure that vaccines are available for all Canadians.

Anya Singh is a 17 y/o blockchain researcher and developer. Her research is focused on investigating long-term fundamental improvements in how to design and build secure systems. She previously worked in ed-tech creating tools and products for web3 developers. Currently, she’s working on an idea for a mobile-first banking solution to serve underbanked populations.

Patrick has a background in blockchain, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies. He has generated billions of dollars in trading volume for the tokens he has helped create, and has worked with some of the largest blockchain founding teams in the industry on collaborations and partnerships for his companies. On the product side, Patrick invented the world’s first decentralized wallet SDK, and he previously built web products that have scaled to hundreds of millions of users and billions of monthly pageviews, working with top publishers around the globe. Patrick is sending the first official artworks to the Moon in early 2023 with artist Jeff Koons and Intuitive Machines. He graduated from Harvard College.

Dylan Dewdney is a long time crypto enthusiast (2011) and builder (2017) and currently serves as CEO and Co-Founder of DeData.com. He is passionate about the areas of decentralized identity, data monetization, and data sovereignty. Most recently, he spoke with Edward Snowden, discussing the implications of a Web3-enabled world.

Adrien is Program Manager at SITA Lab, and runs the Blockchain & Digital Identity Research program. He brings experience developing innovations and proving new concepts on live customer environments. He is currently involved exploring the concept of self-sovereign identity for the industry and how it would simplify passenger experience at airports, ensuring security and confidentiality of personal data. In his previous role, Adrien had investigated innovative ways to improve baggage tracking for the industry within SITA Baggage Product Team. He led product incubation processes from ideation to industrialization, to always bring value to the air transport community. In 2011, he moved to Argentina, leading large infrastructure projects with Orange Business Services, delivering value to diverse industries in areas such as network, security, and collaboration technologies. Prior to 2009, he held various engineering, project management and pre-sales positions in Latin America and Europe for the telecommunication industry. Adrien has lived in five countries and is now based in Montreal, Canada.

Andrew Young is the project lead and co-founder of SX Network, the largest blockchain prediction market in the world. SX Network is the first ever stand-alone smart contract blockchain to launch with a native prediction market protocol. It is designed from the ground-up for blockchain application developers with EVM-compatibility, low-cost transactions, and a PoS-based consensus model. Andrew has been full-time in the crypto space since 2017, specializing in the analysis of economic incentives and tokenomics of new DeFi projects. Andrew also co-hosts the weekly “DeFi Decoded” podcast along with Alex Tapscott, which covers topics and guests across the DeFi spectrum.

Matias Marquez is the CEO of ethos, a company that is on a mission is to accelerate the world’s mass adoption of NFTs by humanizing, simplifying and facilitating rich experiences for brands and their customers. Matias is also an active advisor and investor to early-stage technology companies and a PowerPlay Young Entrepreneurs Ambassador. Matias founded Buyatab in 2009 and led Buyatab, as President and CEO, through the company’s sale to SVS, the acquisition was announced on February 19, 2019. SVS is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, and owned by Atlanta-based FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: FLT). Throughout his career, Matias has received many awards for his entrepreneurial success, including being named a BC Business Top 30 Under 30 recipient in 2016; winner of the 2016 EY Entrepreneur of The Year award; being named to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2017; and being named a Forty Under 40 recipient in 2018.

Dawood Khan is a Founder of TransformationWorx – which launched an enterprise-focused Blockchain and Digital Assets professional and executive development program 2016. The TransformationWorx program, a global first, leads to the “CIO Certified Professional” designation in partnership with the CIO Association of Canada and the Institute of Management Consultants. Over the last few years, Dawood has been increasingly focused on Blockchain and the emerging opportunities as a result, and had been advising executives on business innovation and technology strategy. Dawood sits on the Board of Advisors of the University of California’s Digital Health Program, TransformationWorx, and several start-ups. He holds a Master of Electrical Engineering Degree from Columbia University, N.Y., a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering from Carleton University, and is a Certified Management Consultant

MBA graduate from Columbia Business School with a major in Value Investing. 8 years of experience in FinTech where I worked with Banks (Citi Group & TD Bank) & other FIs. Started working with Teller last year & have been working as Head of Credit at Teller

I have been active in the crypto space since 2013. My passion is to bridge the crypto space to the real world. I believe crypto must be connected and integrated into existing trusted institutions before it can become truly secure, useful and ubiquitous. I focus on how crypto and blockchain technology can leverage the best parts of established, mature fields.

Henri de Jong, co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer at Quantoz

Henri has a track record of more than 30 years of bringing new technologies to the market, like the first route planning systems, digital road maps, and electronic publications.

Henri started his career in 1987 at AND, a Dutch public listed company. He was one of the first employees and worked for more than 12 years on digital road maps and route planning systems.

In 2001, after leaving AND, Henri got interested in self-organization which resulted in several projects in the energy, logistics, and healthcare markets.

In 2015, Henri founded, together with former AND colleagues, Quantoz.

Blockchain Technology brings together Henri’s interest in self-organization and software algorithms. Currently, his focus is on developing the Quantoz Digital Cash solution that will enable Quantoz to become a digitized money payment provider with a Dutch e-money license for specific payment use cases and financial ecosystems.

Mathieu Glaude is the Founder and CEO of Northern Block, a Canadian-based technology provider that facilitates digital transformation through self-sovereign identity (SSI) technologies, standards and principles. Mathieu has diversified experience with building and operating decentralized governance systems with distributed architectures (Government, SMEs, Large Private Sector). Led 40+ successful deployments. Mathieu is an active contributor to groups that set standards and compliance recommendations that shape decentralized identity in Canada and the rest of the world. These include the Trust Over IP Foundation (ToIP), Digital Identity and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) and CIO Strategy Council of Canada. Mathieu hosts the SSI Orbit Podcast, a podcast that explores the ever growing ecosystems of digital identity alongside best in-class guests.

Team Lead at Web3TO – building the Web3 ecosystem in Toronto: web3 business incubation, networking and events. Engineering trained and very interested in what Web3 mindset and businesses can do in building a better world for all.

Over 16 years of experience in technology, having held senior roles in Engineering, Product & Customer Success in multiple startups like Instacart. Working at IOG to bring transparent, decentralized governance as Product Owner for Project Catalyst

Sidney Powell is the CEO & Co-Founder of Maple and launched Maple in 2021. Maple is transforming capital markets through technology and counts traditional finance and crypto-native firms as customers. Sid comes from a background in debt capital markets and institutional banking. During his career in traditional finance, he participated in $3BN+ of corporate bond issuance, established and ran a $200M+ bond funding program, and managed Treasury at a commercial lending FinTech company.

Nadir is the founder of Tenamint.com, a marketplace that turns physical sports collectibles into reward-generating tokens with a mission to empower fans to create meaningful connections with other fans, their favourite athletes and teams. He is also the CEO of Ball Street Technologies, a lab that creates culture-defining web3 projects. He has been in the crypto space since 2016, is a serial entrepreneur who has built several 7-figure businesses, and before that had a career in traditional finance. Nadir is an active mentor in the startup ecosystem in Toronto.

Douglas Heintzman is the Chief Catalyst at the Blockchain Research Institute. He works with clients around the world to help them with their blockchain journeys. He has spent his career focused on disruptive technology and its impact on strategy, organizational models, and business configurations. He has been an entrepreneur/founder, COO, board member, and strategy executive. He was at IBM for 25 years, mostly as a headquarters worldwide strategy executive. He was also the Vice President of Strategy and Evangelism at Sovern, a privacy compliance infrastructure company and at Insolar Technologies a leading next generation distributed ledger technology platform. He was the practice lead for Innovation and Disruptive Technologies at the Burnie Group, a management and technology consultancy firm. At IBM, Douglas was the worldwide Director of Technical Strategy for IBM Software Group, and was the head of strategy for IBM’s Collaboration, Smarter Workforce, Portal, and APIs. He also served as IBM’s chief open source officer, was the sponsorship executive of the ACM International Computer Programming Contest (world programming championship), chairman of the board of the SyncML Initiative, and was a founder of the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). Douglas has been a Board member, consultant and advisor to a variety of startup and scaleup companies, has keynoted business, government and technical conferences all over the world and has been a policy advisor and expert witness for the European Community, and the US and Canadian governments. He holds five patents (in the areas of data synchronization, assistive technologies, and audio processing). He sits on the board of directors for a number of companies and nonprofits. He has been a researcher and author focusing on disruptive technologies and investment ecosystem development. He has been an expert panel member of the Canada’s NSERC Centers of Excellence for the Commercialization of Research program. He was chair of the selection committee for the NSERC Synergy Awards for Innovation and a jury member for the Robot of the Year Award for ethical AI.

Jack is the founder of BlockStar Media, a marketing agency focused on building out and executing online branding and marketing strategies for blockchain and Web3 projects. He is passionate about raising awareness surrounding the need for the inclusion of people with disabilities in tech.

Rishab Chakraborty is a 17-year-old decentralized finance (DeFi) and finance enthusiast. He aims to leverage DeFi to make finance more transparent, inclusive and efficient. He regularly writes about financial assets and emerging technologies on his personal blog with over 10,000 views. He’s been a participant for the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School’s High School Investment Competition and is the youngest member of the Economic Club of Canada. He is passionate about DeFi and has technical and non-technical know-how with Ethereum’s decentralized finance ecosystem. He’s been involved in the crypto space since he was 13 when he began mining cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and began exploring blockchain development. Previously, he had the privilege of working with organizations such as Sidewalk Labs in Toronto, Kidogo in East Africa and the Open Application Network. Apart from finance, Rishab enjoys playing his classical tunes on the guitar as well as running and biking outdoors.

Girik Narang is a 16 y/o blockchain researcher, developer and Defi enthusiast. His research is focused on using blockchain to create accountability, transparency, and decentralization in opioid prescription tracking, and he’s working on building a medical database on Web3. Previously, he had the privilege of working with IKEA as a consultant and with Jobby, a startup aiming to create a new job search method for Gen Z.

Ahnaaf is a neurotech developer trying to accelerate neuroscience research with NeuraDAO. He is a thought leader in Decentralized Science and spoke on global stages like DeSci Day and Collision. Ahnaaf’s life mission is to try to predict the future by building it. That mission has manifested into NeuraDAO

Bob Tapscott Managing Director of www.TapscottAdvisors.com, is currently an author for the Blockchain Research Institute, Wiley and Sons and an International Speaker. He has recently keynoted conferences on Artificial Intelligence, Fintech, and the Blockchain, in New York, Seoul S. Korea, and India. In 2018, he completed a dozen city speaking tour across North America focusing on current CIO / CTO challenges for HMG Strategy. Bob previously was the chief designer and architect to supply computerized directions to the flight management system for Boeing, Airbus, and private aircraft. It is used by every airline worldwide except British Airlines. Bob served as CIO for Citibank, HSBC and other Schedule II banks in Canada. Bob’s extensive background in successfully developing and implementing disruptive strategies from concept through systems design and implementation, includes the training, organizational restructuring, and workflow redesign required to deliver, measure, and improve overall corporate performance and customer satisfaction for his past and present clients.

As Principal Specialist of the Laboratory of Innovation of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB Lab), Alejandro Pardo Vegezzi develops technology-enabled initiatives with exponential impact on social and economic inclusion. He possesses more than 20 years of experience promoting innovation and private sector development as part of the IDB Group. Alejandro is also the founder and leader of IDB Lab ́s initiative LACChain, a regional program to develop the blockchain ecosystem in Latin America and the Caribbean, building public-permissioned networks and defining standards for blockchain-based digital identity and tokenized digital money throughout the region. Before joining the IDB, Alejandro worked for the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank, and the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation with resident fieldwork in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Andreas Veneris is a Connaught Scholar and Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, cross-appointed with the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In the past, he held joint faculty positions with the Athens University of Economics and Business (Dept. of Informatics, 2006-16) and with the University of Tokyo (Dept. of ECE, 2010-11). For more than 20 years he worked in the field of CAD for VLSI synthesis, verification and debugging using formal methods where he published more than 120 conference/journal papers. Today, he focuses on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), mechanism & system design, distributed oracles, formal methods for smart contract verification, IoT and distributed systems, techno-legal blockchain matters and crypto- economics. Prof. Veneris has received a 10-year Best Paper Retrospective Award, three other best paper awards and he holds many patents. He was member of the team in the first webcast ever (37th Grammy Awards, 1995), an event acknowledged by the American Congress. In February 2021 his work with the Bank of Canada became public proposing Canada’s Central Bank Digital Loonie — the first work of its kind that presents a comprehensive technological, regulatory/legal and economic model for a central bank digital currency. In 2021 he was honored to be given the opportunity to comment on a classified report by the Hoover Institution, edited by Darrell Duffie & Elizabeth Economy, prefaced by Condoleezza Rice, and co-authored by an extensive list of prominent world-thinkers. This report was released March 1, 2022 and it is titled “Digital Currencies: The US, China, And The World At A Crossroads”. On March 8, 2022 the US President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order following most of the recommendations of this report.