The data and AI conference for business leaders, technical users and SAS Partners

Bryan Harris
Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, SAS

As Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Bryan Harris is responsible for SAS’ award-winning software portfolio that empowers organizations with data and AI. In this role, he leads a global research and development (R&D) organization of nearly 4,000 people focusing on product design, engineering, advanced analytics and AI, industry solutions, modeling and quantum computing.

Under Harris’ leadership, SAS launched the cloud-native SAS Viya platform and unified the entire portfolio across industry solutions and models. He is also known for his dedication to fostering a purpose-driven, inclusive culture within the R&D organization. He has led several initiatives to support professional growth and encourage cross-divisional collaboration, all of which contribute to SAS’ reputation as a top employer in the technology industry.

Reggie Townsend
Vice President Data Ethics Practice, SAS

Reggie Townsend leads SAS’ global AI Ethics, Governance and Social Impact organization, overseeing the company’s Data & AI Ethics Practice; AI & Society initiatives; AI Governance Advisory; Standards, Regulations & Risk Intelligence programs; and SAS’ Accessible & Adaptive AI efforts. He drives SAS’ commitment to trustworthy, human-centric innovation across products, policies and partnerships.

A nationally recognized voice in AI governance, Reggie serves on the board of EqualAI and has advised the White House as a member of the National AI Advisory Committee. His career includes leadership roles in cloud, consulting and managed services for health care and life sciences. A frequent global speaker and advisor, Reggie has counseled government leaders worldwide, appeared on major stages and been published in JAMA.

A proud Chicagoan, Reggie is an engineering, business and leadership alum of Southern Illinois University, Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago.

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Marinela Profi
Global AI & Generative AI Market Strategy Lead, SAS

Marinela Profi, a leading expert in the field of artificial intelligence, brings a wealth of experience at the intersection of data science, artificial intelligence, and marketing strategy. With advanced degrees in Statistics and AI, along with an MBA, she successfully bridges complex technical concepts with strategic business initiatives.

In her role as the Global AI & GenAI Market Strategy Lead at SAS, she has been instrumental in crafting global marketing strategies for cutting-edge solutions in both machine learning and generative AI. She helps organizations worldwide leverage ethical and trustworthy AI technologies to drive innovation, enhance productivity, and achieve significant operational efficiencies.

Beyond her role at SAS, Marinela is committed to shaping the future of tech through education and thought leadership. As a member of the Advisory Board for Wake Technical Community College's Computer Programming and Data Science Program, she plays a crucial role in aligning academic curricula with evolving industry needs. Her dedication ensures that the next generation of data scientists and IT professionals are well-prepared to meet the challenges and demands of the rapidly advancing tech landscape.

Marinela is also a respected voice in the global tech community. She shares her insights on data science trends and industry priorities at conferences worldwide. As a published author and contributor to various industry publications, she fosters dialogue on the critical issues and opportunities surrounding data and AI.

Marinela Profi is an expert in ethical and trustworthy AI, helping organisations operationalise advanced analytics while also championing women in AI leadership and inclusion.

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Thomas Roehm
Vice President, Corporate Marketing, SAS

Thomas Roehm is responsible for SAS Corporate Marketing. Roehm provides global direction and services across product and industry market strategy, messaging and content, corporate events, customer engagement, and the SAS Executive Briefing Center. He leads positioning and market facing activities in artificial intelligence and advanced analytics, cloud and industry offerings. He helped pioneer SAS’ investment in IoT and consults on the use of analytics in the connected world. Throughout his career, he has been instrumental in defining and bringing new offerings to market as well as leading many enterprise-wide projects.

Carl Hammersburg
Sr. Mgr, Government and Health Care Risk and Fraud, SAS

Carl Hammersburg brings 30+ years of experience in government programs and fighting fraud waste and abuse. Prior to joining SAS in 2012, he worked directly in multiple government benefit and tax programs, and formed and oversaw a fraud division of 250+ staff, receiving multiple external awards for results. Carl leads the SAS Government and Health Care Risk and Fraud team, and has worked with hundreds of customers, both public and private, in 14 countries across North and South America, Europe and Asia/Pacific. He resides in Arizona, USA and holds a B.A. in Business Administration.

Christine Jackson
Executive Director, Public Sector Canada, SAS

Christine Jackson is the Executive Director for the Canadian Public Sector at SAS, where she leads the company’s business development and sales teams while setting the strategic direction for municipal, provincial, and federal government customers. Christine focuses on partnering with public sector organizations to leverage cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud analytics, data management, and data visualization. Through these efforts, Christine helps governments unlock the full potential of their data to make better, data-driven decisions that improve services for citizens. Christine is a customer champion, always working to understand the unique challenges faced by her clients. By fostering collaborative relationships and advocating for solutions that address real-world problems, she ensures that SAS’s offerings align with the specific needs of government organizations. Whether it’s improving operational efficiency, enhancing public safety, or tackling complex data challenges, Christine brings an unwavering commitment to delivering results that matter.

In addition to her professional expertise, Christine is committed to advancing women’s leadership and promoting educational equity. A proud alumnus of the first graduating class of Calgary Girls Charter School, Christine has a personal connection to the school’s mission. As Chair of the Board, she leads initiatives that support the school’s commitment

David Fulford
IPAC CEO

David joined IPAC as the CEO at the beginning of April, 2021. He has a wealth of experience in public service having worked with the Ontario Public Service (OPS) for over 32 years, 16 of those as an Assistant Deputy Minister (ADM) in a number of positions. He has extensive experience in direct service delivery and regional operations having led the Employment & Training Division at the Ministry of Training, Colleges & Universities. In addition to his leadership roles, he established an interjurisdictional network of public servants across Canada to share best practices and lessons learned.

As an ADM in the Ministry of Finance he successfully collaborated with the IT and Finance communities to wind down 17 separate financial systems and create one financial system for the entire OPS. He was responsible for managing a consortium of private sector partners and also managed to create a partnership to borrow resources from other provinces to help Ontario.

As ADM, Chief Administrative Officer for the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Training, Colleges & Universities David provided leadership on operational functions, including: finance, legal services, audit, human resources, strategic planning and research.

Most recently David was the Vice-President, Research & Policy at Colleges Ontario where he successfully led a team responsible for developing research & policy options that advocated on behalf of Ontario's 24 colleges. Working closely with the colleges his team was able to build a consensus that enabled colleges to achieve strategic changes in a number of areas. David is also a guest lecturer at the University of Waterloo, where he speaks on the public service.

David has been a supporter of IPAC throughout his career. He has attended conferences and has played a role in numerous events. He worked internationally in Lithuania on behalf of IPAC/CIDA to help the new government establish a budgetary process. The teams that he has led have been acknowledged through IPAC awards for their outstanding work.

Dinesh Kumar Sivakumar
Director, Data Platform Solution Architecture, Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI)

Dinesh Kumar Sivakumar is a seasoned Data and AI leader with over 20 years of experience driving large scale data transformation, Data & AI platform modernization and analytics enablement across the insurance and financial services industry. Currently serving as Director of Data Platform Solution Architecture at Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI), he leads the modernization of enterprise data platforms and the adoption of AI to enable trusted, data driven decision making.

Dinesh has a proven track record of translating data and AI strategy into real world outcomes establishing governed data platforms, implementing enterprise-scale analytics, and building AI capabilities that align with regulatory and business needs. He has led global teams and partnered closely with business leaders to embed responsible AI practices, ensuring trust, transparency, and compliance remain central to innovation.

With prior leadership roles at Royal Bank of Canada and extensive experience supporting leading North American financial and insurance organizations, Dinesh combines deep technical expertise with strategic vision to help organizations bridge the gap between Data & AI principles and practical implementation, particularly in regulated and public sector environments.

Tara Holland
Government Data and Analytics, Industry Principal, SAS

Based in Ottawa, Tara started her data and analytics journey as a founding member of the Data Mining team at Canada Revenue Agency almost 30 years ago.  In various roles at SAS she has specialized in Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Visualization solutions.  Her passion is in bridging the gap between business needs and technology solutions and enabling public sector organizations to deliver on the value of data. As part of a global team supporting Government customers, Tara brings knowledge of the best practices and solutions from around the world. Her role is to connect and collaborate with the public sector focused professionals from across industry and around the world.

Linda Cowan
Chief Information Officer, Technology & Project Services, British Columbia Securities Commission

Led by the chief information officer, the Technology and Project Services Division is home to the Commission’s information management, systems operations, systems development, and project management services. Its functions include: managing and safeguarding Commission paper and electronic records and provides library and research services for all staff; maintaining, developing and safeguarding our core information systems, and providing support and training to staff on these systems; leading stewardship of the Commission’s data assets; providing project management and business analyst resources for internal projects; leading BCSC business continuity planning.

Bill Wisotsky
Principal Quantum Systems Architect, SAS

Bill Wisotsky began his academic career at SUNY Albany, graduating in 1994. While pursuing a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience at CUNY, he conducted biophysics research on neural pathways in the human visual system using visual evoked potentials. It was during this time—while studying photon absorption in the retina—that he first encountered the principles of quantum physics.

Concepts like superposition and entanglement, initially explored out of necessity, quickly sparked a deep and lasting fascination. This curiosity evolved into a passion as Bill delved into the emerging field of quantum computing. He immersed himself in the theoretical foundations and practical applications of quantum mechanics in computation, laying the groundwork for what would become a defining focus of his career. Bill has been with SAS since 2002 as part of US Professional Services.

Throughout this tenure Bill continued to nurture his interest in quantum technologies. He actively pursued coursework, attended seminars, and experimented with platforms such as IBM Qiskit, PennyLane, Cirq, Pytket and Classiq. His hands-on exploration led to the development of several small-scale proofs of concept, which ultimately catalyzed the launch of the Applied Quantum Initiative at SAS. Today, Bill serves as the Principal Quantum Systems Architect in Research and Development, leading efforts to integrate quantum computing into real-world business solutions.

He has recently been named as a 2025 CEO Award of Excellence Winner and is an inventor on three patents with one accepted (U.S. Patent No. 12,373,720) and two pending.

Stu Bradley
Senior Vice President, Risk, Fraud and Compliance Solutions at SAS

As Senior Vice President of Risk, Fraud and Compliance Solutions at SAS, Stu Bradley leads a diverse team of 700 technology and domain experts in more than two dozen countries in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. He and his team help commercial and public organizations leverage the most advanced analytic technologies in the arenas of risk management, AML/CFT compliance, financial services fraud and financial crimes, government benefits program integrity, tax compliance, and public security.

Bradley’s risk management and anti-fraud career spans more than two decades. Since joining SAS in 2009, he has served in leadership roles advancing the Risk and Fraud portfolio across four main pillars: Risk Management, Industry Fraud, AML Compliance, and Public Security. He’s declared it his personal mission to help organizations implement a modern approach to stopping crime before it happens.

David Cruickshank
Director and Head, Data Strategy & Data Governance, Scotiabank

A proven banking leader specializing in AI, data, and innovation at scale, David Cruickshank leads teams that innovate and build safely to generate value across risk and business strategic objectives.

His engaging leadership style helps harness talent that bridges growth, governance, and regulation priorities, helping the Bank deploy data and AI solutions responsibly.

Alexandra Posadzki
Financial and Cybercrime Reporter, The Globe and Mail's Report on Business

Alexandra Posadzki is an award-winning business journalist at The Globe and Mail, where she writes about financial and cybercrime. She is the author of the instant national bestseller Rogers v. Rogers: The Battle for Control of Canada's Telecom Empire, which won the 2025 National Business Book Award. Her coverage of the dramatic power struggle at Rogers Communications Inc. was recognized with several Canada Best in Business Awards from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, including gold medals in the “scoop” and “beat reporting” categories. You may recognize her from Netflix’s 2022 documentary, Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King.

Jeff Mastin
Enterprise Commercial Lead, AI Workforce

Jeff Mastin is the Director of AI Workforce at Microsoft Canada, where he works directly with CEOs, CHROs, CIOs, and boards to help organizations navigate the workforce and business implications of AI. With more than 25 years of technology leadership experience and 18 years at Microsoft, Jeff has held senior leadership roles across cloud, data, AI, and application innovation.

Today, he advises executive leaders on how AI is reshaping productivity, workforce strategy, operating models, and the future of work. Having led Microsoft Canada’s Data & AI business through the launch of generative AI, Jeff brings a practical perspective on how organizations can move beyond experimentation to operationalize AI at scale while building the trust, skills, and readiness required for lasting transformation.

Dean Bogdanovic
Senior Vice President of Engineering, QuEra

Dean Bogdanovic leads engineering at QuEra, where his organization develops and delivers the classical control systems that operate the company's neutral-atom quantum computers. Bringing the discipline of large-scale infrastructure engineering to this work, he helps move quantum computing from laboratory experiments toward reliable, production-grade systems.

A technical executive with more than 30 years of experience, Dean has focused on real-time control systems across the network infrastructure space. He previously served as CTO of Alef and was Co-Founder and CEO of Volta Networks, a cloud-native virtual routing pioneer acquired by IBM in 2021. Earlier, he held senior technical roles at Juniper Networks, CounterPath, and Bridgeport Networks, and is a longtime contributor to Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards.

Dean holds a degree from the University of Zagreb, Croatia.

Manon Blanchette
Senior Director, Data Platforms, Desjardins

Manon is a senior manager with over 25 years of experience in IT management. Her background has allowed her to experience the full lifecycle of a wide variety of technology capabilities revolving around data protection and analytics. Her data-centric journey has been accomplished through the building and leadership of strong, high-performing teams.

Asma Aziz
Canada General Manager, Intel Corporation

Asma Aziz is a seasoned technology executive with over 20 years of global experience, having lived and worked in six countries across North America, Europe, and Asia. She currently serves as the General Manager of Intel Canada, where she leads the company’s strategic initiatives, business growth, and engagement with key stakeholders across the country.

Asma has spent 19 years at Intel Corporation, shaping the end-to-end IT ecosystem across semiconductors, software, and hardware. She has extensive experience in Marketing, with a proven track record of penetrating untapped markets and identifying new growth opportunities. Her leadership has been instrumental in driving impactful campaigns, strengthening strategic partnerships, and leading projects that deliver tangible bottom-line results.

Franklin Manchester
Global Insurance Strategic Advisor, SAS

Prior to joining SAS, Franklin held a variety of individual contributor and people leader roles in property and casualty insurance. He began his career as an associate agent for Allstate in Boone, NC. In 2005, he joined Nationwide Insurance as a personal lines underwriter. For 17 years at Nationwide, he managed personal and commercial lines underwriters, portfolio analysts, sales support teams and sales managers. Additionally, he supported staff operations, providing thought leadership, strategy and content for sales executive offices.

Antoni Paré-Huot
Product Owner, SAS Viya Platform, National Bank of Canada

With more than 22 years of experience in the financial services industry, Antoni Paré-Huot has built a career at the intersection of business, technology, and transformation. Over the past 15+ years at National Bank of Canada, Antoni has held roles across multiple business sectors, developing a deep understanding of banking operations, risk, regulatory requirements, and technology-driven innovation.

For the last six years, Antoni has served as a Product Owner, leading strategic initiatives ranging from large-scale regulatory programs to enterprise platform modernization. In 2025, he joined the SAS Viya transformation initiative, where he now leads the product vision and roadmap for the cloud infrastructure platform supporting the bank's next-generation analytics ecosystem.

Known for his pragmatic approach and ability to bridge business and technology teams, Antoni is passionate about helping organizations modernize complex environments while delivering tangible value to users. Today, he works closely with architects, engineers, and stakeholders to accelerate National Bank's journey from legacy SAS environments to a modern, scalable SAS Viya platform on the cloud.

Kimberly Nevala
Strategic Advisor, SAS

Kimberly is a Strategic Advisor at SAS. As a thought leader and global content advisor, Kimberly provides forward-looking perspectives on emerging analytics and data practices. She speaks, writes and leads spirited debates about the future of data and analytics and responsible innovation with AI worldwide. As host of the Pondering AI podcast, Kimberly solicits insights from leading AI researchers, advocates and leaders on a broad range of emerging topics.

John Carey
Senior Vice President of Global Channels, SAS

As Senior Vice President of Global Channels, John Carey oversees SAS’ vibrant alliances and channels community. With over twenty years of global experience in the channel space, John guides the construction and execution of partner value-creation efforts to uncover disruptive opportunities that solve SAS customers’ most pressing analytical challenges and generate exceptional value.

Ryan MacDonald
Canada Country Leader and North America Strategic Financial Services Leader at SAS Institute

Ryan MacDonald is the Canada Country Leader and North America Strategic Financial Services Leader at SAS Institute, where he is responsible for the company's most strategic banking relationships across Canada and North America. He works with executive teams at leading financial institutions on both Bay Street and Wall Street to help them accelerate business transformation through artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, and trusted data strategies. Based in Toronto, Ryan leads executive engagement across SAS' most important financial services clients and collaborates closely with global product, engineering, consulting, and customer success leaders to bring innovative AI solutions to market. With extensive experience advising senior executives on enterprise analytics and AI adoption, Ryan is a recognized voice on the opportunities and challenges facing the financial services industry. Ryan can speak to a variety of topics such as generative AI, trustworthy AI, data strategy, enterprise transformation, regulatory innovation, executive stakeholder engagement, and the future of banking in an AI-driven economy.

Jonathan Moran
Senior Manager, Horizontal Solutions Marketing, SAS

Mr. Moran leads global marketing for SAS's horizontal solutions, spanning Martech, Adtech, Cloud, and Marketplaces. He brings over 25 years of experience in technology, data, and analytics, having previously held pre-sales, consulting, and marketing roles at Earnix and Teradata Corporation.

Throughout his career, Mr. Moran has strategically architected, developed, demonstrated, presented, and implemented analytical software solutions, and has worked on-site with Fortune 500 customers across industries and geographies to solve their unique business challenges.

Mr. Moran holds a bachelor's degree from North Carolina State University, where he double majored in Marketing and Spanish Languages and Literatures, as well as an MBA from NC State with a concentration in Technology Commercialization.

Saif Husain
Principal Customer Solutions Manager, AWS

Saif is a Principal Customer Solutions Manager at AWS where he coaches customers to define and achieve success on their cloud and AI adoption journey. Saif has been with Amazon for over 6 years and brings over 20 years of experience in technological transformation and innovation. He has served in numerous leadership roles, excelling at governance and driving large-scale initiatives. Saif specializes in Cloud Financial Management and holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and an MBA.

Ankeet Dedhia
Managing Director, Worldwide Financial Services, Microsoft

Ankeet Dedhia is a Managing Director, Financial Services at Microsoft, where he partners with C-suite executives at leading global banks, market infrastructure firms, and capital markets institutions to drive large-scale business transformation with AI, data, and cloud platforms.

Ankeet brings over two decades of financial services experience spanning trading, product, and mini-CEO roles. Prior to Microsoft, he was a Managing Director at Amazon Web Services, leading data and AI transformation initiatives for global financial services clients. Earlier in his career, Ankeet spent a decade at London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), where he served as Head of FX, with full accountability for product strategy, commercial execution, and P&L. His background also includes senior roles at LCH, CME Group, EY and proprietary trading.

Known for his operator mindset and deep domain expertise in Banking & Capital Markets, Ankeet advises senior executives to transform their platforms at scale, and on deploying AI and analytics to unlock new revenue, improve risk management, and drive operational efficiency. He holds four patents in derivatives and financial risk management and serves as an advisor to venture and growth equity firms.

Saad Rais
Senior Manager, Ministry of Health- Ontario

Saad is currently Senior Manager for the Ministry of Health’s data science capacity, and was the Ministry’s inaugural data scientist. He leads the capacity’s mandate to develop advanced analytic solutions that inform policies and decision making in the Ministry, improve patient outcomes, and increase operational efficiencies. He is also an instructor for the Data Science certificate programs at the University of Toronto and York University. Saad has also worked at Statistics Canada as a survey methodologist. Recently, Saad founded an analytIQ Corporate Training, which strives to drive growth in organizations through offering workshops analytic and AI literacy. More information can be found at analytIQtraining.com.

Ameek Sidhu, Ph. D.
Senior Manager, Internal Rating Management, Scotiabank

Raul Torres Martinez
Senior Manager of Business Intelligence and Analytics, Scotiabank

Samuel Mosquea Mena
Director of Risk Technology, Scotiabank