Syed Mir

Vice President Corporate Services & CIO

London Hydro

Syed Mir is the Vice-President Corporate Services & CIO at London Hydro. He is responsible for Customer Services, Meter Services, Corporate Communications and Information Technology. As an Executive Committee member, he is responsible for “meter to cash” strategy and innovation to deliver customer value.

Syed Mir started his career at Ontario Hydro after graduating from the University of Western Ontario with a BSc (Honours) in Computer Science. He joined London Hydro in 2010 from Ontario Power Generation where he held various Vice-President positions. He served on the Sheridan College Board of Governors from 200-2015. He is the current Chairman of the Board of Directors for Green Button Alliance.

Alex Foord

Chief Information Officer and Vice President, Information and Technology Services

IESO

Alex Foord is Chief Information Officer and Vice President, Information and Technology Services. Alex’s responsibilities include accountability for IESO’s information technology solutions, strategies, and leading the IESO’s enterprise-wide cybersecurity management program. He ensures oversight of the Smart Metering Entity which is responsible for all operation of the province’s Metering Data Management/Repository, allowing for time-of-use billing in Ontario.

Alex has over 25 years of experience in a wide array of IT disciplines. Most recently Alex was Vice President, Information Technology at BGIS, a Brookfield company. He has also held senior roles including leadership positions at Loblaw Companies Limited and EDULINX Canada Ltd.

Alex attended York University, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.

Imran Merali

Vice President Customer Service

Hydro One

Imran Merali is Vice President of Customer Service at Hydro One, Ontario’s largest electricity transmission and distribution provider with almost 1.4 million valued customers.

Imran has 10 years of experience within the Customer Service organization at Hydro One. Most recently, Imran led the insourcing of the Customer Contact Centre, which welcomed 400 employees back into the Hydro One family. Imran has also played a key role in a number of new programs that have transformed Hydro One’s customer service culture, many of which have become firsts for the Utility sector in Ontario. These new programs have also resulted in tangible improvements to customer satisfaction results.

Imran holds a Bachelor of Science and Business from University of Waterloo and Masters of Business Administration from the University of Toronto.

Jim Keech

President & Chief Executive Officer

Utilities Kingston and Kingston Hydro Corporation

Jim Keech is the President & Chief Executive Officer and member of the
Board of Directors of Utilities Kingston and Kingston Hydro Corporation
since 2000.

Jim has over 35 years of experience in a multi-utility environment, including electric distribution, natural gas distribution, water/wastewater and fibre-optics sectors. He is currently responsible for the management of Utilities Kingston and Kingston Hydro Corporation. He also manages the City of Kingston’s Transportation & Infrastructure Group, and participates as a member of the City of Kingston’s Corporate
Management Team.

Jim’s involvement with boards, past and present, include The Ontario Municipal Water Association (OMWA), Plug’n Drive, The Electricity Distributors Association (EDA), and The Municipal Electric Association Reciprocal Insurance Exchange (MEARIE). In 2014, Jim received the ICD.D designation with The Institute of Corporate Directors.

Jim holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Queens University and is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario.

Jason Cassidy

Founder and CEO

Shinydocs Corporation

Jason has been solving digital enterprise technology challenges for over 20 years as a new product developer and entrepreneur.

In a crowded enterprise information market, Jason recognizes the irony that there is no solution for 80% of content and has dedicated the last five years of Shinydocs to automating the understanding of this dark corporate information.

Shinydocs award-winning solutions are transforming the digital landscape, from modernizing Content Services to leveraging Machine Learning and AI to deliver Cognitive Information Management.

Shinydocs is the ITWorld Canada Fintech Diamond Award Winner 2018, featured at the IBM Disruptive Innovation Forum, OpenText Technology Partner of the Year and its best-selling Solution Extension for the last three years.

Jyothi Visweswaran

Vice President- Consulting Service

CGI

Vice President, Consulting Services at CGI with over 20 years of experience covering Financial Services, Telecom, Utilities, Government, Health Care, Retail, Distribution and Manufacturing. Jyothi is results-oriented with demonstrated success in cross-functional collaborations. She has managed large-scale technology programs with budgets of $25M+ across multiple geographies, under tight timelines, using offshore teams and multiple vendors. Jyothi was the CGI project director for Alectra’s recent Oracle CC&B CIS system upgrade, successfully merging three additional utilities onto a single consolidated platform.

Linas Medelis

Director of Customer Service Excellence

Alectra Utilities

As the Director of Customer Service Excellence at Alectra Utilities, Linas Medelis is focused on the customer experience. He has worked in the electricity industry for over 20 years starting his career with Markham Hydro Distribution Inc. Linas is a strong and recognized leader who is highly collaborative, strongly goal-oriented, with the ability to generate resilient, transparent engagement with all stakeholders. He is well versed in mergers and fully cognizant of the importance of process, system and cultural integration. Linas has a unique technical knowledge of customer service systems and applications, coupled with an ability to assess risks, to create meaningful results that champion the customers’ interests, delivers customer value and builds trust. Linas has recently led the successful convergence of four independent LDCs (Local Distribution Companies) onto a single, foundational Customer Information System underpinning the utility’s ability to deliver customer value, harmonize processes and advance the customer experience.

About Alectra’s Family of Companies

Serving more than one million homes and businesses in Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe area, Alectra Utilities is now the largest municipally-owned electricity utility in Canada, based on the total number of customers served. We contribute to the economic growth and vibrancy of the 17 communities we serve by investing in essential energy infrastructure, delivering a safe and reliable supply of electricity, and providing innovative energy solutions.

Our mission is to be an energy ally, helping our customers and the communities we serve to discover the possibilities of tomorrow’s energy future.

Joe Vrbanek

Project Manager, Corporate Transformations

Hydro One

Joe has over 10 years of experience in managing projects for Utilities. He joined Hydro One 10 years ago and began his career managing electrical distribution and transmission projects whilst now he manages corporate transformational initiatives involving SAP implementations. Most recently, he successfully managed a business transformational project that saw a 2000+ workforce move from paper-based process to SAP Work Manager, which has been the most successful benefit achieving initiative in recent years at the organization.

Joe is a Professional Engineer, a Project Management Professional and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Computational Intelligence.

Robert Brewer

Director of Consulting Services

CGI

Rob has over 19 years of experience in the Utilities industry. As a Project Management Professional, he will help you drive critical projects and programs to completion. He builds trusted relationships with internal and external stakeholders to gain insight into possible roadblocks and to develop strategies to reach goals. He does so in a way that ensures structure and professionalism in the delivery, while conveying a passion for success and the highest respect for all involved team members and customers. Rob did this for Joe on the Movement 2 Mobile project.

Kapil Nanchahal

Associate Vice President- Resources & Utilities

Infosys

Kapil has close to 2 decades of Enterprise Technology strategy experience guiding Utilities, Energy, Telecom and Retail enterprises on devising and executing their technology roadmaps. Over the last decade he has advised leading North American Utilities on transformational programs across their Meter To Cash, Customer Experience and Enterprise Technology domains.

Peter Morin

Director

PwC

Peter is a Director with PwC’s Cybersecurity & Privacy practice, based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is a senior cyber security professional with over 20 years of experience focusing on information security risk management, developing and implementing security standards and frameworks, developing secure architecture, cyber threat incident response, and computer forensics. He is specialized in security of and resilience of cyber-physical and OT systems with a focus on the power, utility, mining and manufacturing companies. Peter has worked in senior positions for a number of large organizations, including a national telecommunications and media company, Fortune 500 cloud computing company, major US defense contractor, and a recognized cyber security software company.

Devashish Paul

Founder & CEO

BluWave-ai

Devashish Paul is the Founder and CEO of BluWave-ai, a company committed to accelerating the adoption and use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar across communities and corporations to realize the “Utility of the Future”. With a background in distributed edge and core artificial intelligence (AI) and supercomputing, Mr. Paul is seeking to realize a world powered by renewable energy with BluWave-ai’s grid energy optimization platform.

Throughout Mr. Paul’s 20+ year career in the high technology sector, he has led the successful product development and commercialization of innovations in network processing, wireless cellular infrastructure for 3G, LTE, and LTE advanced systems, supercomputing and artificial intelligence. Mr. Paul has a proven track record of taking businesses from startup mode to multi-million dollars of revenues with global operations. Prior to starting BluWave-ai, Mr. Paul was Director of Strategic Marketing Systems Solutions for Integrated Device Technology (NASDAQ:IDTI), where he drove collaborative systems design between IDT and such partners as Nvidia, Intel, IBM and AMD for Hyperscale Cloud and 5G systems.

Mr. Paul continues to be very active in industry leadership roles which have included chairing the High-Performance Computing Group in the Open Compute Project which was started by Facebook and serving as an advisory board member of the CERN OpenLab and 5G Lab Germany. Today, Mr. Paul is a regular speaker on the smart energy circuit including the 2018 Microgrid Global Innovation Forum in London and the recent smart cities event in Montreal, Smart MTL * Ville Intelligente. As well, Mr. Paul through BluWave-ai is part of the Canada-UK Power Forward Challenge, a program sponsored by Natural Resources Canada and the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to foster the development of cleantech solutions for a more sustainable and resilient grid.

Mr. Paul holds a Master of Electrical Engineering in Digital Signal Processing and a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from the University of Ottawa, along with a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) from the Royal Military College.  He is a 31x Ironman triathlon finisher, has coached masters athletes to 100+ finishes, and has raced for Canada in 10 world championships. As well, Mr. Paul coached the Kanata Nordic Ski Club for 14 years.

Dr. Darrell Massie

Founder and Chief Technology Officer

Intelligent Power and Energy Research Corporation (IPERC)

Darrell Massie is the founder and Chief Technology Officer of Intelligent Power and Energy Research Corporation (IPERC), a producer of intelligent controls and cyber security for microgrids.

Dr. Massie was IPERC’s Principal Investigator for all phases of the cyber secure controls system for the SPIDERS Phase I, II and III projects. The SPIDERS program was the flagship cybersecure microgrid project sponsored by US Department of Energy, US Department of Defense (DOD) and US Department of Homeland Security.

Prior to founding IPERC, Dr. Massie served for over 20 years as a commissioned officer in the US Army and taught for 15 years as Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. Dr. Massie has served in a variety of positions as one of the Army’s primary experts for strategic planning in power and energy. He has authored or co-authored over 90 technical papers and reports, two US patents and is a registered Professional Engineer in Colorado and New York.

Ash Rajendra

Former CIO

Just Energy & Executive in Residence at TechBlocks

Ash Rajendra is a seasoned IT Executive with a keen ability to navigate complex business challenges. Ash blends dynamic and visionary leadership, and technical insights which are ideally suited to high growth enterprises. As Executive in Residence at TechBlocks he is bringing his experience directly to industry leaders.

Most recently, Ash served as Chief Information Officer for Just Energy (NYSE:JE, TSX:JE), where he steered the planning and execution of the company’s global IT strategy. Under his leadership, the company employed effective IT solutions to successfully navigate a number of significant operational changes and geographical expansion. Ash improved customer service delivery, systems performance and standardization, and introduced point-of-sale digitized sales solutions benefiting stakeholders across the Just Energy Group, through high performance teams he built and mentored, to align technology initiatives with business goals.

Prior to this, Ash served as Chief Information Officer at MDS Nordion, and Vice President, MDS, Inc. where he led and executed all IT aspects adding more than US$ 1 Billion to the company’s bottom-line in less than 7 years. Ash was also responsible for IT, Management Consulting and Project Management across verticals spanning Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Government, Energy and Distribution at IBM Canada, where he was renowned for salvaging key customer relationships through his deep expertise across varied IT challenges.”

Daniel Carr

Manager, Emerging Domain- Smart Cities

Alectra Utilities

Daniel Carr is an experienced program manager with expertise in the management of innovative, customer-facing energy programs, policy development and regulatory strategy. In his current role at Alectra Utilities as Manager, Emerging Domains – Smart Cities, he develops and leads projects that bring new distributed energy technologies and concepts into practice, with a focus on electric vehicles, demand response and dynamic electricity pricing. These initiatives have been deployed to thousands of customers and are creating new opportunities for Alectra, Canada’s largest municipally-owned utility. He aspires to enable cities to fulfill their unique and critical role in helping communities adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Daniel has a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from Carleton University, with an undergraduate degree in Government from Cornell University.  He holds the Certified Energy Manager and Certified Measurement and Verification Professional designations. He has also served on industry committees organized by groups such as Electric Mobility Canada, Natural Resources Canada and the Electricity Distributors Association.

Ron Caruso

Partner- Front Office Transformation Lead

PwC Canada

Ron is a Consulting & Deals Partner at PwC Canada with a specialized focus in the areas of digital customer experience and front office transformation.

Throughout his career he has led complex transformation programs which drive increased business performance through technology-based innovation. His experience spans strategy, through to value realization with large, highly visible programs and initiatives. He is an active delivery leader; driving enterprise value in organizations by reinventing the experience for organizations’ customers and employees.

Prior to joining PwC, Ron led a team of practitioners and delivered Customer Information Systems engagements to utilities across North American and the Caribbean, spanning Application Management, Technology Consulting, Management Consulting and Complex System Integration.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Business Information Systems from Ryerson University.

Eileen Campbell

Vice President Customer Service

Alectra Utilities

Eileen is known as a customer and community champion and is committed to striving for excellence and inspiring people. A customer service professional with over 35 years of experience, Eileen has demonstrated success in increasing revenues, optimizing sustained productivity savings and cost containment, while maintaining high levels of employee and customer satisfaction.

Reporting to the President, Eileen is a member of the Senior Leadership Team and business unit leader contributing to corporate strategic planning, merger business planning and stakeholder relations. Eileen is accountable for all aspects of customer care, billing, and collections serving almost one million customers across sixteen communities.

Eileen is passionate about helping others, and presently volunteers in the community. She is the recording Secretary for the Housing and Homelessness Advisory Committee with the City of Hamilton. Eileen is the Past Chair of the Electricity Distributors Association’s (EDA) Conversation (CDM) Caucus and the Past Chair and Vice-Chair of the Canadian Electricity Association’s (CEA) Customer Council.

Eileen was honoured to be recognized as Vice-President of the Year for her leadership in customer service excellence by the Customer Service Professional Network. Eileen completed the Executive Management Program at DeGroot School of Business and holds a Diploma in Management Studies from McMaster University and an Ontario Management Development Certificate from Mohawk College in Hamilton.

Mary Caputi

CPA, CA, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Innovation

Oakville Enterprises Corporation

Mary has been involved in the energy and infrastructure sectors for over 17 years. In her current role of Senior Vice President, Enterprise Innovation, she leads OEC in advancing the organization forward to strategically align the businesses with the fast pace of change, the challenges of new and disruptive technologies, and with the way energy is being transformed. In addition to her role, Mary is the Chief Conservation Officer at Oakville Hydro and leads the organization’s Gender Diversity initiative.

Previously, Mary held senior roles in Finance, Regulatory Affairs, Energy Conservation, Supply Chain & Facilities, Institutionalized Program Management and Communications at OEC. Mary serves on the board of Energy Storage Canada and actively participates in many committees such as the Canadian Electricity Association Emerging Issues Committee, Canadian Electricity Associations Government and Public Affairs Committee and the Ontario Energy Board Industry Standards Committee. She is also a member of the OEA’s Board Advisory Committee and Chair of the GridSmartCity Supply Chain Committee.

Mary is also a volunteer public representative for the Halton District School Board’s Audit Committee and is a graduate of the University of Waterloo with a degree in mathematics and accounting. Mary obtained her Chartered Accountancy designation in 1998.

Richard Wilson

CISSP Partner, Cybersecurity & Privacy Consulting

PwC Canada

Richard is a partner in PwC’s Cybersecurity & Privacy Consulting practice. He helps boards and management teams understand and strategically defend against the rapidly evolving cybersecurity threats today. His unique board cybersecurity framework equips directors and management teams to have the right dialogue about cyber strategies, resources, processes, systems, and services.

He has 24 years of professional services experience, including 15 years in a CEO or COO role for publicly traded and private companies.  He has more than a decade of experience advising boards and C-Suites on governance, strategy, organizational planning, risk, and risk response.

Richard has been published in Compliance Week, Canadian Business, and the Globe & Mail and is a keynote speaker on the cybersecurity & risk in Canada, the US, and Mexico. He is a former board member of CPA Canada’s Corporate Oversight & Governance Board

richard.m.wilson@pwc.com   416.941.8374

Verbal introduction for speaking engagements:

Richard is a partner in PwC’s Cybersecurity & Privacy Consulting practice. He helps boards and management teams understand and strategically defend against cybersecurity threats. Richard applies 15 years of experience in a CEO and COO role. 

James Strapp

Partner, Digital Operations Leader

PwC Canada

James Strapp is a Partner in PwC’s Management Consulting practice, based in Toronto. He leads PwC Digital Operations initiatives, with a focus on the utilities, mining and energy industries.

James brings 25 years of experience consulting to asset-intensive industries in Canada and around the world. His numerous client engagements have focused on applying digital technologies to operations transformations. He has played lead roles in landmark deployments of IOT, AI, and mobile technologies to solve business challenges.

James is the former global leader of IBM’s Energy & Utilities consulting practice. He is the author of several industry papers, and has an BA and MSc in Geography focused on the application of analytics to spatial problems.

Julie Morin

IoT Lead

Microsoft

Julie Morin  is part of Microsoft’s Global  Black Belt team specializing in Internet of things.   Julie provides guidance to public and private sector customers to accelerate their digital business transformation through Internet of Things.

She brings experience in driving technology initiatives with Canadian organizations find innovative solutions to address high value digital transformation projects.   Julie is in line with the industry’s fast changing requirements for enterprises clients in the Utilities looking for guidance with Internet of Things, predictive analytics, machine learning and data strategy while ensuring compliance, security as a forefront.

Sarah J. Shortreed

Chief Information Officer

Bruce Power

Sarah was most recently the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Bruce Power. She has global experience in many industries and executive roles spanning business consulting, complex multi-stakeholder program management, operations, P&L, sales, customer relationship management and product management. Before joining Bruce Power in 2013, Sarah was a VP at BlackBerry, responsible for strategy, planning, procurement, process improvement and business continuity across four of RIM’s operating units. Sarah also spent over a decade with IBM in leadership roles such as project and program management; outsourcing; business transformation / process re-engineering; and strategy consulting. Sarah began her career with Union Gas where she held a variety of engineering and management roles in the areas of regional operations and pipeline construction. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering Science degree, Mechanical, from the University of Western Ontario. Sarah sits on the Board of Governors for the University of Western Ontario, the Digital Advisory Board to the CIO Branch of the Treasury Board of Canada, and is the Chair of the CIO Committee at the Conference Board of Canada. Sarah recently completed a term on the Board of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

Ben Blakely

Senior Manager Information Security

IESO

Ben Blakely is a leader in cyber security within the Canadian electricity sector. With 15 years in the cyber security space, he works at one of Canada’s largest system operators, the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO). At the IESO, he is the Senior Manager – Information Security, responsible for strategy, execution and operations of the enterprise security program and the IESO’s electricity sector cybersecurity services.

Ben is also the Chair of the Canadian Electricity Association Security and Infrastructure Protection committee. As part of his duties, he leads nation-wide initiatives that focus on enhancing the security and resilience of the electricity industry.

Francis Bradley

COO & VP Public Affairs,Emerging Issues

Canadian Electricity Association

Francis Bradley directs CEA’s day-to-day operations, oversees its Public Affairs, US Affairs, Emerging Issues, and directs CEA’s security activities. A frequent speaker on security, technology, industry transformation and the future of the electricity industry, he was a co-author for 5 years of the annual North American Electric Industry Outlook published jointly by the Washington International Energy Group and CEA.

Benoit Marcoux

Thought Leader

Private Practice

Ben has sold or led over 120 customer engagements or projects in energy, telecom and hightech, mostly for business transformation, business planning, marketing, and technology implementation, including the management of the largest smart meter installation program in Canada.

His passion is how technologies are transforming the electricity industry, and he accompanies clients in this tortuous journey. Along the way, he has sold, financed, designed and managed systems, programs, services and organizations.

Ben graduated as a professional engineer and went on to complete a master’s degree in
Applied Sciences and an MBA.

Kim Allen

P.Eng. IntPE, FEC, MBA

President and CEO Allenvision Inc.

Kim is an accomplished CEO, and entrepreneurial leader with demonstrated success spanning technology, utilities, regulatory sectors, professional associations, and startups. Leveraging extensive experience developing and executing long-term strategies, Kim provides strategic insights to startups, technology companies, utilities and associations.

Kim attained his MBA from the Rotman Business School (Toronto) and his Bachelor of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ottawa.

Daria Babaie

P. Eng.

President & CEO, Reyzan Inc.

Daria Babaie is a senior manager with 25 years of leadership experience and expertise in regulatory affairs, audit and compliance, performance assessment, corporate governance, business planning & budgeting, utility management and engineering operations, and operational excellence consulting services with full P&L responsibilities.

Daria is a professional engineer (P. Eng.) with a CPA designation.

Prior to forming his own consulting services Ryezan Inc. in early 2017, which is based in Toronto, Daria worked for the last 10 years at the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) at the senior roles of Manager – Audit and Performance Assessment, Manager – Audit and Regulatory Accounting, and Manager – Rate Applications.

Prior to the OEB, Daria held senior management positions at the Professional Engineers Ontario, Nima Business Engineering, DTE/Probyn Energy Solutions (a subsidiary of Detroit Edison), Toronto Hydro ($2 billion in assets), and Scarborough Utilities ($400 million in assets). Daria’s areas of expertise include:

Corporate Governance

Strategic Planning & Budgeting, Business Plans & Scorecards

Regulated Utility Industry including Utility Management and Engineering Operations

OEB Regulatory, Rate Applications and OEB Hearings

Energy Projects

Audit & Regulatory Compliance

Accounting & Finance

Strategic Alliance & Partnerships

Organizational Design and Teams Development and Leadership

Project management and project development

Daria can be reached on daria.babaie@ryezan.com

Paul Giroux

Innovation Officer

Greater Sudbury Utilities

Paul started his career at innovation centers in the mid 90’s where he relished the opportunity to push boundaries with web & geospatial data & technology. He also worked for the City of Greater Sudbury where he was responsible for coordinating and leading the development of their Enterprise GIS in support of asset and maintenance management. In 2016 he had the privilege to work in Water/Wastewater with a team focused on transforming the department with business process improvement, integrations, analytics, enterprise geospatial, web and mobile GIS and operational technologies.

In 2014 he completed his Master of Science in GIS studying organizational impacts (leadership, literacy, culture) on people, process, technology & ultimately on data quality. This work is shared Creative Commons and in use by a growing number of cities, counties, state agencies and private organizations who use the framework and methodology to guide and measure the performance of their organization’s transformations with location intelligence.

As The Workshop’s Innovation Officer, Paul is fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation at Greater Sudbury Utilities and empowering employees, customers and communities with creative solutions, platforms and insights.