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As the Open Banking and Blockchain Leader, Abhishek leads EY Canada’s Banking Technology Consulting practice.

Abhishek focuses on the transformative impact technology has on the banking industry.

He works with clients to strategize and operationalize major transformative initiatives within Core Banking Operations, Retail & Commercial Banking, Finance & Treasury and Payments. Abhishek’s current focus includes Digital Adoption, Innovation, Open Banking, Open APIs, Enterprise Architecture, Data Management, Analytics and IT Strategy.

Abhishek also leads EY’s Blockchain practice in Canada across all sectors, working with clients as they understand the fundamental impact blockchain has to their operating & business models.

Abhishek significant international experience with top-tier consulting firms and within the banking industry. He has played significant roles in setting up de-novo banks in different jurisdictions and has held various management positions in established global banks.

Ben is a Partner and the Head of Partnerships and Policy at Portage Ventures. Prior to joining Portage in 2018, he spent more than 15 years at Canada Life in senior level strategy, product development and marketing roles across the organization, including the Head of Innovation for Canada.

As Head of Partnerships, Ben’s team works with those investors to help them execute on their strategic objectives through a combination of commercial partnerships with the fund’s portfolio companies and relevant and differentiated insights into the trends shaping the fintech sector.

Ben also leads Portage’s government affairs mandate and has helped to position the organization as a leading voice for pro competition and innovation policy developments. He sits on the board of the Paytechs of Canada and is a member of the Digital Identity Laboratories advisory panel.

Ben is a graduate of the Business Administration program (BBA) from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Derrick Smith is a strategic leader focused on development and execution of information management aligned with corporate strategies. With his solid background as a leader in process transformation and streamlining, he is constantly on the lookout for measurable and tangible benefits. Passionate about human development, outstanding service delivery and innovation, his career path clearly demonstrates his ability to influence and to produce strategic results within regulatory frameworks.

Mr. Smith began his career as an IT Development Manager at Truswal Systems of Canada from 1987 to 1996 before accepting a position as an IT Director at Microforum from 1996 to 2002. From 2002 to 2017, he held various positions, in the field of information technology with Assumption Life, as Director and later became Vice President and Chief Information Officer.

In May 2017, Derrick Smith joined the UNI Financial Cooperation team as Vice-President Operations & Optimization.

Throughout his career, Mr. Smith has been involved in numerous committees and board of directors. From 2009 to 2015, he was a member of the board of the New Brunswick Technology Council and the Premier’s Advisory committee. He has also served on the boards of Downtown Moncton Centre-Ville and Codiac Soccer. He also led, in 2002, the board of the Canadian Systems Development Committee.

Mr. Smith holds a degree in Computer Science and is certified black-belt Lean Six Sigma. He is also a graduate of the Executive Development Program at Queen’s School of Business in Kingston, Ontario. Over the years, he has completed extensive training, including Effective Communications and Human Relations at Dale Carnegie, Maximum Performance Leadership at the Canadian Management Centre and Strategic Management at Saint Mary’s University.

Don Cardinal is Managing Director of the Financial Data Exchange (FDX). Cardinal leads FDX by engaging with FDX members across the financial services and fintech ecosystem in the US and Canada to develop and implement the FDX API technical standard and to promote FDX’s five principles for permissioned data sharing: Control, Access, Transparency, Traceability & Security. Since its launch in October 2018 with 21 founding members, Cardinal has grown the nonprofit standards body to over 185 member organizations and 16 million consumer accounts have been migrated to the FDX API in North America.

Don comes to FDX after more than 20 years with Bank of America, where he served in key leadership roles as the Privacy Officer of their Military Bank, the Digital Banking VP for Military Bank, VP in Digital Banking, and most recently as a Senior VP in Global Information Security, where he orchestrated the bank’s DMARC email security implementation. From 2016 to 2018, Don also served as co-chair of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center’s (FS-ISAC) Aggregation Working Group. Prior to his banking career, Don worked for a fintech, writing tax preparation software.

Hugh McKee is Head of BMO Partners, BMO’s Enterprise partnership team accountable for using strategic partnerships and investments to help accelerate innovation and growth across BMO. He is accountable for developing partnerships with Fintechs, Bigtechs, financial services consortia and innovation accelerators. Prior to his current role, Hugh was the Vice President of Enterprise Strategy in the Office of Strategic Management where he led Enterprise strategic initiatives.

Hugh has also held a number of operating roles within BMO including President and CEO of BMO Mutual Funds and Vice President of Customer Segment Management. Before joining BMO in 2007, he was a Global Account Manager for Monitor Group, a management consulting firm, where he was a leader in the financial services practice. Hugh holds an Honours BA in Economics from Queen’s University and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario.

Michelle is the CEO & founder of FINAVATOR an award winning FinTech and Payments Consultancy. She is also a strategic advisor, a Money 20/20 Rise Up alumni, a Women in Payments Global Council Member, the Membership Chair at CPPO (Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization), a Payment Advisor at NCFA (National Crowdfunding and FinTech Association of Canada), and a Board Member at OBIC (Open Banking Initiative of Canada).