New 2022 Speakers

2022 Speakers

Speaker lineup for our 2021 conference

Dr. Annatasha Bartel
Head of Anesthesia and Surgery at the VCA Toronto Veterinary Emergency & Referral Hospital

Dr. Bartel is a board certified veterinary anesthesiologist, one of less than 700 specialists worldwide. She completed her training at Queen’s University, the University of Edinburgh, and Cornell University prior to entering clinical veterinary practice. During her residency in Anesthesia and Analgesia at Cornell, Dr. Bartel was appointed Chief Resident and won awards for teaching and research. She has worked in a variety of practice settings including academic and private practice hospitals and has anesthetized a plethora of different animal species including the typical domestic and agricultural species but also wildlife and zoo animals.

Her current work as President Elect with the North American Veterinary Anesthesia Society serves to bring a high quality of veterinary anesthesia in all practice settings through education, support, and fostering liaisons with other major professional associations the world over. Growing areas of interest include Just Culture approaches in veterinary medicine and removing inherent bias to clinical practice.

Dr. Anvari was the recipient of the Government of Ontario Diamond Award for Innovation in Technology, the Government of Canada Gold Medal of Distinction for Telerobotic Surgery, and the NASA-International Space Station (ISS) Research and Development Award for Biology and Medicine. In June of 2017, Lt.-Gov. of Ontario Elizabeth Dowdeswell appointed Professor Anvari to the Order of Ontario for his work.

Celina Caesar-Chavannes

Sr. Advisor, EDI Initiatives and Adjunct Lecturer at Queen’s
University.

Uri Carnat joined Convergence.tech and Trybe.ID as of January 2021, in the consulting position of VP Partnerships. He leads discussions with global Education and Healthcare partners on digital identification and credentials, and advises on strategic planning and opportunities. Prior to this role, Uri was Director - Strategic Partnerships with ApplyBoard, facilitating international education recruitment agreements in Canada and Australia. Previously, he was Country Director – Canada at IDP, leading the student-recruitment and IELTS testing in Canada and Latin America. Born in Halifax and educated in Montreal, he has years of leadership experience in international education, with specific focuses on recruitment, student services, operations, and contracts.

He enjoys building senior-level industry and government relationships and presenting at national and international events. Uri has traveled extensively, engaging with stakeholders and students from North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Australia.

Ariel Garten

Co-Founder of Interaxon and Creator of the Muse Headset

Ariel Garten is probably one of the most interesting people you will meet. She is a Neuroscientist, mom, former psychotherapist, former fashion designer, and the co- founder and visionary of an amazing and highly successful tech start-up Muse.

Muse tracks your brain during meditation to give you real-time feedback on your meditation, guiding you into the “zone” and solving the problem most of us have when starting a meditation practice. Muse lets you know when you are doing it right.

With no formal business background, Ariel personally raised $18M to found Muse from Silicon Valley investors (as well as Ashton Kutcher). Muse is now used by hundreds of thousands of people to start or deepen their mediation practice, including by Mayo clinic.

When Ariel is not reading brains (literally) or investing in, inspiring and advising other start-ups and women in biz, you can find her on stages across the world, from TED to MIT teaching audiences about their brain and how to overcome its limitations, consistently giving her audiences the practical tools and insights they need to help them become their best selves.

Ariel and Muse have been featured in over 1000 articles, including CNN (3x), Forbes, Fortune, Popular Science, NYT, WSJ, GQ, Men’s Health, O Magazine, Wired, and more.

Ariel’s mission in life is to help people understand how their brain and mind work - both the nuts and bolts and neurons, and how that plays out in the messy and beautiful human experience of living. She inspires people to understand that they can accomplish anything they want by understanding what actually goes on in their own mind.

Ariel is also the co-host of the Untangle Podcast.

Ania Halliop

Senior Engineering Manager at Uber ATG R&D Engineering

Ania Halliop is a senior Engineering Manager at Uber ATG R&D Engineering, leading teams for the productization of deep-learning algorithms for self-driving vehicles. Previously, she was a Senior Director of Engineering at FreshBooks where she led data engineering and infrastructure. A graduate of Queen's University, Ania has been working in software for almost 20 years, first as a software developer and then as technical leader. Throughout her career, Ania has made contributions to networking, security, and web development, and has helped develop new leaders, grow software development teams, and drive technical and organization change at companies such as Siemens, Blackberry and FreshBooks. Over the past 5 years, Ania has been involved in the Toronto tech scene to provide opportunities and mentorship to new speakers with the goal of encouraging more women to speak at technical events and conferences.

Mady Dewey & Ali Howard

Creators of Herd

Mady Dewey and Ali Howard are 24-year-old entrepreneurs, co-Founding the social media app Herd, the first female founded social platform. A year after graduating from Chapman University together in 2018, they both moved to Seattle for their careers in technology and marketing.

Mady, a Southern California native, was the first woman in her family to attend college (which she paid for on her own). Post-graduation, she was hired at Google, where she worked in advertising two years. Mady has experience working with product developers to bring a vision to life. In quarantine, she began posting TikTok videos on tech, algorithms and marketing. Since February, Mady has built a community of over 63,000 people.

Ali is an experienced marketer, where post-graduation she began working in sales and marketing. Currently working for Google, Ali helps her clients through uncovering creative solutions to exceed their needs. Driven by her desire to inspire others, Ali founded a community on Facebook devoted to intentional health and wellbeing with over 15,000 members.

After a year of shared frustration with comparison, beauty standards, influence culture and toxicity online Mady and Ali began dreaming of the solution. That's when Herd was born.

Mady and Ali are determined to bring the Herd vision to life, and feel immense responsibility to create an inclusive and intentional product for generations to come.

Alex Richter

Associate Principal at Adamson Associates Architects

In 1993, Alex joined J.A. Jones-GMO as a Design Manager for numerous major international Projects that included several towers at the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, the Ho Chi Minh Sports and City Centre development in Vietnam, the Atlantis Casino and Resort in the Bahamas, and the redevelopment of Terminal C at Newark International Airport.

Alex rejoined the firm in 2000 as the Senior Site Representative for projects in the New York Area that included the Chrysler Center Redevelopment Project, the Hearst Tower Renovation, 30 Hudson, and the East Bathtub Infrastructure at the World Trade Center site.

From 2007 to 2013, Alex was the Director of our Abu Dhabi Office overseeing Adamson’s involvement in the $1 Billion Abu Dhabi Media Zone mixed-use development and the Marina Tower commercial tower.

He returned to Toronto in 2013 where he has directed some of our largest and most prestigious local projects including The Well mixed-use redevelopment, CIBC Square, and the Canada Square redevelopment.

Jaya Murthy

Chief of Global Internal Communications for UNICEF

Jaya Murthy will discuss ways technology can enhance humanitarian work and strategic communication at this year's TYSI conference. With 18 years of experience in international humanitarian and development work, Jaya is currently leading efforts to reform UNICEF’s Internal Communications and Staff Engagement function to strategically enable organizational improvement and change. He specializes in communications, advocacy and strategic partnerships to promote and protect children’s rights. Previously, he worked in Uganda, Iraq, Somalia, Jordan, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and across West Africa. Additionally he worked with UNICEF, UNHCR and international and national NGOs. He has a masters degree in Communications from McGill University with certificates in Executive Leadership and Management from Harvard University and Forced Migration from Oxford University. He is passionate about innovative solutions and approaches to deliver social impact at-scale. He also presented at Impact Investing World Forum in 2017 and 2018.

Guy Pearce

Chief Digital Officer and Chief Data Officer at Convergence.tech

Guy Pearce has served on governance boards in banking, financial services and a not for profit, and as CEO of a multinational financial services organization. He has led an active role in Digital Transformation since 1999, experiences which led him to create a Digital Transformation course for the University of Toronto SCS (Ontario, Canada) in 2019. Consulting in digital transformation and governance, he readily shares more than a decade of experience in data governance and IT governance by publications and at conferences. He was awarded the 2019 ISACA Michael Cangemi best author award for contributions to IT governance, and serves as Chief Digital Officer and Chief Data Officer at Convergence.Tech.

Chris Procyshyn

A Founder and CEO of Vanrx Pharmasystems

Chris Procyshyn is the Chief Executive Officer of Vanrx Pharmasystems, a founder, and member of its Board of Directors. Vanrx’s created Aseptic Filling Workcells, flexible pharmaceutical filling machines that can switch quickly between vials, syringes or cartridges is going to be used by the Canadian government for the COVID-19 vaccine. With over twenty years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Chris has led teams in the development of complex injectable products in the fields of ophthalmology, oncology and reproductive health. Globally experienced, he has interacted with, and negotiated the implementation of new technologies with many of the major regulatory jurisdictions responsible for pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Previously with QLT, a pioneering Canadian biopharmaceutical company, Chris led the Manufacturing, Engineering and Process Sciences groups in the development of many advanced aseptic processes and their implementation into manufacturing facilities in multiple countries. Chris is a past Vice President of the ISPE Pacific Northwest Chapter, and is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan with a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology.

Mateo Salvatto

Co-Founder and CEO of Asteroid Technologies

Mateo Salvatto is a 22-year-old tech entrepreneur from Buenos Aires, Argentina. When he was 17 he achieved the “International Robotics Champion” title, and a year later created his first company: Asteroid, whose first product, Háblalo, already assists more than 120,000 people with disabilities around the world, entirely for free.

Mateo today serves as Head of Innovation for ORT Schools and was recognized as Humanitarian Innovator of the Year by MIT Technology Review, Best Social Innovator by Peking University and Outstanding Entrepreneur by the National Congress, among other important awards. Finally, his company, Asteroid, was recognized as one of the TOP 100 worldwide by the Global Entrepreneurship Network in 2020.

Amy Wasik

Leader of Google Cloud Support Engineering Team in Canada

Amy Wasik leads the Google Cloud Support Engineering team in Canada. Her team helps solve complex technical problems for some of Google Cloud Platform’s largest and most important customers, and works on improving the supportability of our Platform.

Prior to joining Google, Amy was a Senior Vice President at Two Sigma Investments, one of the world’s largest technology driven quantitative hedge funds based in NYC. While there, she led the platform engineering teams responsible for core software services frameworks and execution.

Amy has been an active proponent of diversity, equity and inclusion. She has been a facilitator of #IamRemarkable for two years, training hundreds of attendees on how to empower women and underrepresented groups to speak openly about their accomplishments to help further their careers.

Amy Wasik has a Bachelor degree in Software Engineering and a Master of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Greg Wells

Founder and CEO of Wells Performance

For Dr. Greg Wells, health and performance, particularly under extreme conditions, are personal and professional obsessions. As a scientist and physiologist, he has dedicated his career to making the science of human limits understandable and actionable.

For over 25 years, Dr. Wells has worked with some of the highest-performing individuals on the planet, including Olympic and World champions, and with organizations ranging from General Electric to BMO, Deloitte, KPMG, BMW, Audi, Sysco Foods, YPO and Air Canada. He is also committed to inspiring children and young adults through his close working relationship with several school boards and independent schools.

A veteran endurance athlete, Dr. Wells has participated in the grueling Nanisivik Marathon 600 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Ironman Canada and the Tour D’Afrique, an 11,000 km cycling race that is the longest in the world. He is also a travel and expedition adventurer who has journeyed through every imaginable terrain and conditions in over 50 countries around the world.

Dr. Wells is author of four best-selling books – Superbodies, The Ripple Effect, The Focus Effect and Rest, Refocus, Recharge. Dr. Wells also hosted the Gemini award-winning Superbodies series, which aired on Olympic broadcasts worldwide in 2010 and 2012.

Dr. Wells has a Ph.D. in Physiology, and continues to serve as a Senior Scientist in Translational Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

He is the CEO and founder of Wells Performance, a global consulting firm committed to achieving the moonshot of helping teams, schools and businesses become places where people get healthy, perform optimally and reach their potential.

Sharon Zohar

Founder and CEO of the Big Push

Sharon Zohar is a serial entrepreneur and investor with more than twenty years experience founding, investing, advising, and operating technology, internet, and digital media companies. Her passion drives her to identify new innovative technologies and business models that have the potential to disrupt traditional markets and are designed to improve the human condition.