Attend The 2024
FINANCE ANALYTICS & AI FORUM

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Total Finance Magazine & DM Magazine Presents a One-Day, Senior Executive Forum for CFOs, VP of Finance, Lending, Payments, Treasury and other C-Suite Leaders entrusted with AI in data-driven operations.

Sponsored by Melissa Data

OBA Conference Centre in Toronto
20 Toronto Street | December 2, 2024

An All-Keynote Style Senior Executive Forum, located in the heart of the financial district, each individual speaker will addresses all delegates in a top-level format that ensures all attendees get the most impactful insights. Speakers will share deep-dives on data-driven finance, including (but not limited to) analytics, forecasting, scenario planning, capital allocation, cloud solutions, cybersecurity, digital transformation and AI-Powered solutions.

Leaders in all aspects of data-driven finance will examine the workings of today’s finance role and reveal the near-future in the ever-expanding, analytics-powered C-Suite. The universal torrent of data available today has become the foundational tool of informed decision making for finance in all business sectors. Data and the evaluation of data connects across department and functions. CFOs and their teams are increasingly responsible for unlocking the value for more than just finance.

Each one-hour presentation will explore and reveal real-world, actionable paths to enable all aspects of the transformative power of data and analytics in finance. Each will examine a specific topic.

CONFERENCE TIMETABLE & AGENDA

7:45 am | Registration, Breakfast, Networking
8:30 am | Welcoming Remarks, Morning Keynote
9:30 am to 12:30 pm | Super Session Keynotes
12:35 pm | Luncheon, Networking | Afternoon Keynote
2:00 pm to 5:00 pm| Super Session Keynotes
5:00 pm to 5:30 pm | Panel Discussion | Networking

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SESSION: The ROI of AI in Finance: A Comprehensive Approach. In the presentation, Matthias Steinberg, CFO of MindBridge, will explore how AI, Machine Learning (ML), Deep Learning, and Generative AI are transforming finance and auditing. This session will cut through the AI hype, showcasing real-world applications that deliver measurable business value. Attendees will gain valuable insights into successful AI project implementation, calculating ROI, and effectively integrating AI into financial workflows to drive innovation and growth.

SPEAKER: Matthias Steinberg, CFO, MindBridge. Steinberg has more than 15 years’ experience in investing in and managing high growth technology businesses. Prior to MindBridge he was CFO of IONOS, Europe’s largest mass market hoster where he also served on the board of several group companies. He as held leadership roles in several organizations including Summit Partners and Lokad SaS. Matthias holds a master of engineering and an MBA from INSEAD.

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SESSION: Benchmarking Machine Learning for E-Commerce Fraud Management: E-commerce fraud has grown dramatically over the past five years. On average, merchants in North America spend about 10 percent of their e-commerce revenue on fraud management. Machine learning (ML) has become increasingly important to merchants for fraud management, and almost two thirds of merchants in north America use third party data and analysis for ML-based fraud management. However, not all ML techniques are equal, and performance benchmarking ML algorithms is critical to evaluate their effectiveness. It is also pivotal in establishing the business case for fraud management. This session describes the techniques used to benchmark machine learning algorithms of several third-party fraud prediction services. It examines some of the key metrics that are important in benchmarking ML algorithms and highlights some of the challenges that need to be addressed in benchmarking.

SPEAKER: Christie Christelis, President, Technology Strategies International, Canadian Payments Insights. Christelis is the founder and president of Technology Strategies International Inc. (TSI), a Canadian technology market research and strategy consulting firm. He is Canada’s leading payments industry analyst and has been tracking developments in the Canadian payments industry for more than twenty five years. In the payments sector, Christie has provided advisory services to clients on EMV implementation, virtual currencies, fintech, mobile payments and wallets, P2P payments, debit payments, smart cards, payments and loyalty programs, simulating payments markets, and benchmarking machine learning algorithms for e-commerce authentication. He has also conducted payments market studies on payments markets in Canada, USA, Europe, Tunisia and South Africa. TSI publishes the Canadian Payments Forecast and Canadian Consumer Payments Survey on an annual basis and has conducted foresight reports on virtual currencies, BNPL and tokenization. He has presented papers on the adoption of advanced payments technologies at payments conferences in Canada, USA, UK, Australia and South Africa.

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SESSION: Next Generation Payments Technologies as a Key Enabler of Finance Analytics: The retail and commercial payments sectors have for decades followed a secular trend for the inclusion of increasing financial and related data in core retail and commercial payments processes. This session will provide an in-depth review of the additional business data that can be generated or captured by next generation payments technologies. These technologies include EMV2, tokenization and ISO20022. This session will also identify the resulting opportunities and threats in data analytics for key actors in the payments ecosystem as a result of these extended data capabilities. Example impacts include the changed roles of issuers and networks, and the emergence of new front-end and back-end data service providers. This session will also discuss the potential role of artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on how AI can support the design of new payments and accounts products and services that leverage from the capture of expanded payments data.

SPEAKER: Michael J. Vaselenak, CEO, VCS Technologies Inc. A specialist in product management and business development for payments and transactional systems, with three decades of experience, Vaselenak has defined payments product strategies, advised on product opportunities and risks, and specified or proposed software and services under those strategies for leading Canadian, U.S. and international corporations including Canadian top tier banks, national merchants, MasterCard Canada, loyalty and gift card program providers, Canada Post, Ericsson, Microsoft, IBM, Teleglobe, Telus, Telpay, Everlink, card program managers, credit unions, and federal and provincial governments. Additional clients include Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Aconite, Government of Northwest Territories and the World Bank agency, IFC. He founded and lead companies that developed and then operated advanced transaction processing solutions including proprietary account card networks, special purpose POS terminals, extended transaction set authorization and adjudication, and ecommerce merchant and supply chain applications. These solutions were provided for Gulf Canada, Petro Canada, Manulife, Aetna, Prudential, Metlife, as well as medical professional associations and others.

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SESSION: Unlocking the Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence in Finance.  This session will provide the audience a primer on what artificial intelligence is, how its being currently used specifically in the area of finance. We will review test cases, the benefits and limits around AI and some of the legal issues around rolling out AI-driven tools across the organization. We will also discuss how to manage enterprise AI-risk, including best practices.

SPEAKER: Imran Ahmad, Partner, Canadian Head of Technology Canadian Co-Head of Cybersecurity and Data Privacy, Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP / S.E.N.C.R.L., s.r.l. Imran advises clients across all industries on a wide array of technology-related matters, including outsourcing, cloud computing, SaaS, strategic alliances, technology development, system procurement and implementation, technology licensing and transfer, distribution, open source software, and electronic commerce. As part of his cybersecurity practice, Imran works with clients to develop and implement strategies related to cyber threats. He advises on legal risk assessments, compliance, due diligence, security, and data breach incident preparedness and response.Imran is the author of Canada’s first legal incident preparation and response handbook titled Cybersecurity in Canada: A Guide to Best Practices, Planning, and Management, 2nd Edition (LexisNexis, March 2021)

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SESSION: AI at the Forefront: The Use Cases of Today and Tomorrow. In this session, André will discuss how key AI use cases are transforming banks and insurers from the inside out. He will cover how these use cases will enable both to keep pace with digital challengers and neobanks, as well as customers’ increasing digital expectations, as they move beyond the AI ideation and testing phase to scale their AI implementations organization wide. Some examples of use cases he will discuss include AI-powered software development, fraud detection virtual assistants, and autonomous agents.

SPEAKER: André Gagné, CEO, GFT Canada. André brings more than 25 years of visionary leadership in information technology and over 12 years of specialized expertise in transforming the financial services sector. André’s career has been fuelled by a passion for leveraging technology to drive impactful, real-world solutions. His expertise spans large-scale transformations with globally recognized software firms and service providers, where he consistently applied his strategic insights, problem-solving acumen, and technological knowledge to deliver high-stakes results. Under his leadership, GFT Canada aims to become a leader in digital transformation within Canada’s insurance and banking sectors.

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SESSION: AI in Finance: From Skepticism to Optimism.
Finance is shifting stance from ‘why’ to ‘when’ for AI adoption. Our recent survey of global finance executives shows that we’ve reached a tipping point with AI, the question is not whether they will adopt AI, it’s when. In fact, 52% of respondents are already using AI in some capacity. Early adopters are reporting early successes. And for the rest, 56% recognize the potential to accelerate finance transformation over the next 5 years. The key is transforming with advanced technologies that continue to innovate and deliver excellence to the office of the CFO. We’ll review the key findings of the report, explore the AI in finance use cases, and share the tips and techniques to help you develop your roadmap for your AI adoption.

SPEAKER: Leslie Cant, Product Marketing Director, CCH® Tagetik, Walters Kluwer. As Product Marketing Director, Leslie is responsible for the global product marketing strategy including product positioning, analyst relationships, content creation, sales enablement, and thought leadership. Leslie joined CCH Tagetik in 2017 after spending 14 years in the Corporate Performance Management and Corporate Tax markets helping clients streamline their financial processes in her various roles in Product Marketing, Product Management and Client Services. 

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SESSION: GenAI and the New Frontier of Cyber Threats in Financial Sector: From Needles in Haystacks to Stacks of Needles. Imagine cyber attackers who no longer search for a single needle in a haystack but can find all the needles in all the haystacks simultaneously: this is the new reality powered by generative AI. Join us for a compelling session where we unveil how GenAI is revolutionizing the cyber threat landscape, enabling attackers to target and exploit vulnerabilities at an unprecedented scale. Discover what this means for the financial sector and how finance executives like you can navigate this evolving digital battlefield to safeguard your customer’s data – and your institution’s future.

SPEAKER: Andrew Buckles, Executive Vice President, Cyber Services, ISA Cybersecurity. Andrew brings over 15 years of experience in the fields of IT and cyber. In his role as the Executive Vice President of Cyber Services, he has full accountability for the project-based, role-based, and managed security services offered by ISA Cybersecurity. Professional and results-oriented, Andrew has extensive experience working with large enterprise clients in financial services, utilities, manufacturing, retail, and the broader public sector, providing strategic, advisory, and operational services in the areas of governance, risk, compliance, and privacy.

Want to Attend and Speed the Registration Process? See below for one email sign up. This saves you $100.00 pp.

Quick Registration: Hold your place by sending an email to Steve Lloyd and we’ll send you confirmation and a request for further details to complete the process. Simply send your name, title, company and contact details for each delegate and you’ll be fully registered with a seat(s) held for you. This is for any single-delegate or dual-delegate registration. Quick Registration rate is $495.00 for one; $795 for two using this sign up process. Steve Lloyd, Publisher.

The OBA Conference Centre at 20 Toronto Street (King & Yonge) is a strategically-located event space that offers one of the most immersive and technologically advanced facilities. Total Finance magazine and our other publications have staged senior-level events at the OBA for many years and always receive warm praise for the choice of venue. There are discounts for group or team registration. The Full Speaker Roster will be announced shortly but if you are interested in speaking please drop me a note to steve@totalfinance.ca and I’ll send you the full Speaker Kit and other details about the event, our magazine audience and the expected demographic of the delegates.

Got questions? Let me know and I’ll get back to you quickly.

Steve Lloyd, Publisher & Editor in Chief, Total Finance Magazine and DM Magazine

P: 905-201-6600 | C: 416-919-7076