Canada’s must-attend Open Banking event returns for a fifth year to influence the roadmap and get deals done

Darrell MacMullin is Senior Vice President of Products & Platforms at Mastercard in Canada.

He leads the product teams, strategy, and roadmap execution for all product and platform business lines, including Consumer Cards, B2B, Digital, New Payment Platforms, Cyber Intelligence, Crypto and Open Banking.

Darrell brings more than 20 years of financial technology leadership and business management experience to his role. In 2019, he received the Canadian Fintech and AI award for Leadership.

Prior to joining Mastercard, Darrell was chief commercial officer for Securekey. During his tenure, he worked with the government and banks to facilitate convenient connection between consumers and critical online services. Darrell was also CEO of Goldmoney Network, a financial technology company operating a payments network based on blockchain/distributed ledger. His notable career accomplishments include selling a payments technology company to Square, and launching PayPal in Canada, leading its growth for its first 8 years.

Darrell has a passion for transforming industries, companies, and lives through the innovative use of technology.

Darrell has a Bachelor of Arts in Business from Toronto Metropolitan University.

Abraham Tachjian is Canada’s open banking lead, named by the Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Associate Minister of Finance, in March 2022. Mr. Tachjian has extensive experience related to open banking in Canada and internationally. He was a Director in the Financial Services practice at PwC Canada. He helped found Mox Bank, a new digital bank in Hong Kong, and was Director of Digital Banking of Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore where he was responsible for the implementation of emerging technologies.

Mr. Tachjian earned a B.A. from Concordia University, an LL.B in civil law from Université de Montréal, a J.D. in common law from University of Ottawa and a certificate in Chinese Law from China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing. He is a member of the Law Society of Ontario and the Barreau du Québec.

Darrell MacMullin is Senior Vice President of Products & Platforms at Mastercard in Canada.

He leads the product teams, strategy, and roadmap execution for all product and platform business lines, including Consumer Cards, B2B, Digital, New Payment Platforms, Cyber Intelligence, Crypto and Open Banking.

Darrell brings more than 20 years of financial technology leadership and business management experience to his role. In 2019, he received the Canadian Fintech and AI award for Leadership.

Prior to joining Mastercard, Darrell was chief commercial officer for Securekey. During his tenure, he worked with the government and banks to facilitate convenient connection between consumers and critical online services. Darrell was also CEO of Goldmoney Network, a financial technology company operating a payments network based on blockchain/distributed ledger. His notable career accomplishments include selling a payments technology company to Square, and launching PayPal in Canada, leading its growth for its first 8 years.

Darrell has a passion for transforming industries, companies, and lives through the innovative use of technology.

Darrell has a Bachelor of Arts in Business from Toronto Metropolitan University.

Krista Broughton brings over a decade of experience developing the emerging payment landscape, working closely with partners to bring new lines of business to market. Krista has driven growth within issuing, acquiring, tech incubator, start up and mobility environments, working with organizations including Scotiabank, Moneris, ElementAI and Telus.

She brings a passion for data driven collaborations and a curiosity about innovation within consumer directed finance. Krista holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Rizwan Khalfan is responsible for setting the strategic direction for all digital and payments activities, while creating more intuitive, personalized and integrated experiences that help customers live their lives. Rizwan’s mandate includes partnering with business units across the organization to strategically invest in transformational digital capabilities, overseeing the evolution of the payments ecosystem, and collaborating with innovators, fintechs and start-ups, all with an eye on delivering differentiated experiences to customers and employees.

Prior to this role, Rizwan was responsible for delivering the technology strategies and development supporting the bank’s North American ATM, Phone and Online/Mobile channels. He has held roles of increasing seniority since joining TD in February 2002.

Before joining TD, Rizwan worked for Citigroup, overseeing their Operations and Technology in Europe.

A CFA charterholder, Rizwan is a graduate of the University of Toronto. He is married with three children, and actively involved in his community, serving on the Board of his children’s school. He is an avid tennis player.

As the Senior Vice-President & Group Head of Personal Banking at Equitable Bank, Mahima leads EQ Bank, Canada’s leading digital bank, the Single-Family mortgage businesses, the decumulation lines of business in Reverse Mortgages and CSV Lending, Marketing, and the distribution of deposit products through the Financial Planning channel. Mahima joined Equitable in 2016 to lead the Corporate Development team, grew her mandate to include digital banking and marketing in 2019, and eventually to lead the Personal Banking division in 2020. Under her leadership, Equitable has acquired both Bennington Financial and the Maple Bank portfolio and introduced the decumulation lines of business; while EQ Bank surpassed $7 billion in total deposits, and successfully introduced a suite of new products and features.

Peter Tilton is the Chief Digital Officer, Personal & Commercial Banking (P&CB) for RBC. In this role Peter is responsible for helping to drive RBC’s shift to a more technology-enabled, digitally-driven bank. More specifically, he is responsible for identifying and capitalizing on ways to leverage digital to further position RBC as a global leader in digital banking. Peter has oversight of building the framework to drive the convergence of digital channels with sales, service, and contact centre platforms. Peter is also responsible for direct client experiences across mobile, online, tablet, wearables including banking, direct investing, wallet, and rewards solutions.

Prior to joining RBC in 2016, Peter was Head of Digital Banking for Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ Bank). Peter’s previous roles at ANZ included leading the Analytics & Insights, ATMs, Foreign Exchange, International Banking and International Payments functions.

Peter has a Computer Science and Education Degree from the University of Melbourne and his Master’s in Human Resources Development from Queensland University of Technology.

Peter lives in Toronto, Ontario with his wife and daughter.

Sean McCarthy is a Financial Services Industry leader at AWS. Sean is focused on helping customers identify use cases and industry solutions that leverage the transformational power of cloud computing. He engages with C-level executives and influencers at all levels, working closely with teams across AWS, to build relationships with financial institutions of all sizes across all market segments, from FinTech startups to the largest banks, insurers, broker- dealers, and exchange groups in the world.

Sean has almost 20 years of financial services experience, with leadership roles in digital transformation, customer experience, marketing strategy, partnerships, and payments. Sean joined AWS in 2019 as the Partner Alliance Lead for Deloitte Canada, and became the Financial Services Industry GTM leader for Canada in 2022. Sean’s passions are helping organizations transform the customer experience, developing new business opportunities, and leveraging the power of AWS to drive innovation.

Sean is based in Toronto, Canada.

With over 30 years’ experience in enterprise architecture along with a background in engineering and computer science, Baskar is a recognized thought leader in innovation and digital transformation in the financial services industry.

Baskar is responsible for the strategic direction of TCS’ Open Banking solutions; he leads all facets of the practice globally and most notably, helps financial institutions best identify their viability and growth strategies as Open Banking around the world evolves towards Open Finance.

Baskar is a strategic thinker who is passionate about reinventing traditional approaches to cultivate next-generation consumer engagement and helps align client organizational goals to drive successful outcomes.

Shruti is a purpose-driven leader with 13+ years of extensive global experience spanning roles that leveraged her Thought leadership, strong and collaborative Strategic mindset, and pathbreaking initiatives across Digital, Cards, Payments & Open Banking. Her passion for customer centric outcomes and staying on top of the market pulse has contributed effectively to her stint in India and Dubai in shaping up numerous Open Banking initiatives.

Along with her core assignment, Shruti is co leading the International Professionals Network at CIBC, with a member base of 3000+ and expanding! She is also a Networking Circle Leader with CIBC’s Women’s Network and a Committee Member of PBB IDAC’s Inclusive Leadership Pillar, actively contributing to causes close to her.

Shruti likes to self-identify as an Intersectional Feminist and an advocate of Women’s Financial Literacy, Equal opportunity and equal pay.

She is a Youth Mentor at Skills for change and TRIEC mentor for the new immigrants to Canada.

She is also a member of Ascend Canada to enhance the presence, visibility and influence of current and future Pan-Asian business leaders.

Shruti is also the Co-Founder of an online community for working women on Facebook with 1200+ followers called Women in Workforce. She is a Council member of WICCI for Banking & Credit Forum and an active member of Women in Payments, and Women in Open Banking.

Prior to KPMG was the Chief Technology & Operating Officer at Payments Canada. Prior – 25+ years of experience in financial services spanning strategy, payments, technology, security, implementation, and operations.

Lecture annually at IGTB school of Business at Oxford University – attended MIT/Cambridge/Schulich and Charles Sturt.

Women in Payments Advocate for Women award in 2019 for support of female talent,gender-balanced leadership and workplace inclusion. Built an algorithm to look for unconscious bias and equalized pay outcomes at CIBC for tech and operations.

Spend my spare time creating content for the Musky Hunter TV show on World Fishing network/You Tube, have an Apiary at my farm in Buckhorn Ontario as well always busy like my bees!. Write articles for Northern Ontario Travel.

As Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, Bhavna provides strategic direction, leadership and oversight of key regional partnerships in Payments and Loyalty for Scotiabank, covering over 10 markets in Latin America and the Caribbean. She is responsible for the vision and roadmap for Payments and Loyalty across International Banking, and for collaborating with all Scotiabank markets to guide execution of regional priorities.

Current mission: Drive Digital ‘anytime, anywhere, any device’ Payments and transformative customer-centric loyalty, across the bank’s international markets.

Previously, Bhavna has held progressive roles in Financial services and Consulting with both Fortune 500 companies and fintechs. Active in industry circles, Bhavna has led the Mobile Strategic Leadership Team at the Association of Card Technology Canada, served on the Board and Government Relations team at the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization, and is a frequent contributor and thought leader at industry forums.

Bhavna holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Ryerson University and a Masters in Business Administration from the Schulich School of Business.

If I ever get the opportunity for a memoir, well one that someone would read, it would be called “The Accidental Career”. I’m fascinated with physics and their applications in the real world, and here I am leading Digital Transformation at Mainstreet Credit Union.

How did I get here? A long, winding, and amazing road full of luck and leaps.

I obtained an engineering degree, Western 2004, and learned that the best part of my program was learning to break things down and put them back together in new ways. Yet, I graduated as an Engineer with no awareness of where I could go. After experiences with a few companies in building automation and energy, I landed a role at TD Bank and the idea of a career started to form.

My roles included managing an asbestos program, a construction pipeline, Omni Distribution and channels strategies, and lately leading a team of product owners developing software. Through this array of widely diverging jobs, I learned that the best part of every role was working out how to help each team achieve more than they thought possible, and use technology to make things easier.

Digital Transformation is the perfect next step and I am excited to join Mainstreet to work with everyone making it even easier for our members to do business with us.

I live in London with my wife, Jen, our three year-old daughter Eva, and our menagerie of dogs (Oliver, Piper, and Morgan), and cats (Chazz and Phoebe).

I am passionate about strong communities, and am proud to work with a group that reinvests. I volunteer with the United Way, Animal Rescue Foundation, Verge Social Capital, and the London Chamber of Commerce. As a proud southwestern-Ontarian, I was honoured to be recognized by Business London Magazine in 2016 as a “Top 20 Under 40” recipient.

My hobbies include getting lost in a solid video game or novel, playing baseball, and teaching myself to drum. Recently, I’ve taken any chance I can to be out cycling and you are likely find me in a coffee shop in any of our many towns.

Sharing my favourite…

Books: “1984”, “Infinite Jest”
Films: “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Office Space”, “Charade”
Video Games: “Bioshock”, “Dark Souls”

Judy Li is the Director of Information Management, Data Analytics and ISO at Payments Canada. Judy is responsible for the organization, governance and analytic usage of payments data, as well as the development and implementation of ISO 20022 messages used in the payments systems and advocates for industry wide adoption.

Prior to joining Payments Canada, Judy led the software development and quality assurance teams in various industries.

Charlie is an investor at OMERS Ventures, a global early-stage venture platform, and is actively leading Seed-Series C technology investments in NA and in the EU. Recent investments include Moves Financial, ClearEstate, Qui Identity, OneVest and Manifest Climate.

David is an accomplished Banking and Payments executive with in-depth knowledge acquired within the Canadian and Global banking landscape.  He is a subject matter expert on open banking / open finance, real-time payments, and innovative overlay services – bringing expert insight and thought leadership covering the full spectrum from retail and wholesale payments to clearing and settlement.  David has worked with FIs across North America to support the development of open banking and payments strategies; helping clients take their existing strategies and create pragmatic, executable roadmaps to modernize and digitally transform their business.

Prior to joining CGI, David was the strategy & innovation executive at Everlink Payment Services, working with credit unions and tier II banks to launch new payment products and services. David has held senior positions at Visa Canada and at Moneris Solutions, working extensively with payments, payment networks and gateways.  He started his career at Bank of Montreal amid the run-up to launching the first virtual bank in Canada.

Paul-Emile has been active in the fields of Research, Consulting, Fundraising and Business Development for the past fifteen years. In 2007, he completed his honours degree in History, Political Science and Canadian Studies at the University of Toronto. In 2010, he completed his Masters in Environmental Studies at York University, with a focus on Indigenous knowledge and a major research paper titled: The Traditional Rights of Ways on the Walpole Island First Nation.

He has served as a member of the Research Advisory Committee with Canadian Energy Research Institute, the Chair of the National Advisory Committee with ORIGIN Inc. and the current President and Chair of the Board of Directors for Aboriginal Legal Services. He currently resides in Toronto and is an avid follower of sports and business.

Corinne Pohlmann is Senior Vice President, National Affairs and Partnerships for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), a not-for-profit organization representing 95,000 small and medium-sized businesses across Canada. Corinne is based in Ottawa and is responsible for developing CFIB’s strategy on federal legislative issues, as well as overseeing CFIB’s Partnerships division, and Atlantic Canada legislative team.

Since joining the Federation in 1998, Corinne first worked in research, where she authored several research reports on a variety of public policy and economic issues. In 2000, Corinne became CFIB’s Director of Provincial Affairs based in Edmonton where she represented the interests of Alberta and NWT members to all levels of government and in 2006 she relocated to Ottawa to take on the responsibility of National Affairs.

Throughout her career, Corinne participated in numerous national consultations and committees on a wide variety of small business issues, including the Ministerial Advisory Committee on the Underground Economy, the Advisory Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, as well as the Deputy Minister Advisory Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

Corinne was born and raised in Montreal where she attended McGill University – graduating with both a Bachelor and a Masters Degree in Geography.

As Director Strategy – Emerging Businesses, Sandeep leads BMO’s efforts on monitoring and driving strategy, integration and business response towards disruptive market forces that drive the evolution of payments, retail and business banking (such as Open Banking, RTR, Digital Assets, Banking as a Service & others). He is also responsible for the creation and ongoing refinement of Horizon 2, 3 roadmap to inform capability gaps to defend against disruptions.

In addition to this role at BMO, Sandeep is an exec advisor to the Masters of Digital Product Management program at Queen’s University and volunteers as a Strategic Partnerships Lead for TEDx Toronto.

Sandeep is a graduate of the Smith School of Business, Queen’s University with a Masters of Business Administration degree. He also holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the National Institute of Engineering in India.

As Vice President, External Ecosystems, Franklin positions TD for future success by developing and shaping partnerships, acquisitions, and strategic relationships across innovation ecosystems. Additionally, Franklin leads UGO – a growing business-to-business service offering and accelerator. Franklin also leads the Bank’s approach to Open Banking and the advancement of TD’s Digital Identity agenda.

Franklin represents TD on both the Digital Identification and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC) and Financial Data Exchange (FDX) boards.

Franklin is a graduate of the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University with a Master of Business Administration. He also holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from École Supérieure D’Électricité. He is passionate about giving back and deploying technology to solve community problems. Outside of work, Franklin enjoys travelling and spending time outdoors with his wife and 3 kids.

Sandy Kyriakatos is a seasoned thought leader in the field of data and technology, with a strong track record of success in driving business growth and competitive advantage. She has helped clients to focus on harnessing the power of their second most valuable asset — Data. Through the relentless pursuit of both Innovation and Ethics, her mantra is to use the Power of Data for Good.

As Chief Data Officer at Equifax Canada, Sandy Kyriakatos leads Consumer and Commercial Data, Data Acquisition, Data Governance Quality and Policy, and Data Modernization including Data Contributor Services. Data alignment and synergy across Equifax Canada, in particular as it pertains to the Quality of our data, is a foundational priority.

Sandy has had an extensive career in highly sensitive senior information and analytics roles in both public and private sectors. She was the first CDO for the Government of Canada at Employment and Social Development Canada, as well as the CDO at Canada Border Services Agency. Additionally, she has led data and analytics across industry verticals including at Loyalty One, SAS Canada, and Canada Post.

Steven has twenty+ years of experience across financial services, interactive media and telecom. He has a proven track record of leading global teams in the design and delivery of IT infrastructure, architecture and applications while addressing complex business challenges. Steven drives product delivery at Portfolio+ across feasibility, requirements analysis, design, implementation, deployment and support.