Open Banking Expo Canada meet-up launch with EY – June 2021
Open Banking Expo launched free-to-attend quarterly meet-ups to bring together the visionaries, disruptors and innovators to work together to move Open Banking (consumer-directed finance) to the next level, to bring together the ecosystem and to bring about change and transformation.
Open Banking Expo Canada meet-ups use the latest AI-powered networking and content delivery technology to maximise each opportunity for your time. With one eye on government guidance, we look forward to holding these meetings face to face when it is safe to do so.
Abhishek Sinha
Abhishek Sinha
Partner, Banking & Capital Markets EY CanadaAbhishek Sinha is a seasoned leader in banking and fintech, known for guiding institutions through transformation and innovation. With deep expertise in strategy, operations, and technology, he helps build scalable, future-ready financial businesses. Abhishek has led neobank launches, digital transformation programs, and strategic initiatives that challenge traditional models and drive sustainable growth. His structured yet adaptable approach balances strategic vision with execution excellence. Passionate about leadership, culture, and continuous learning, Abhishek is a trusted advisor on banking strategy, operational excellence, and technology integration – and a catalyst for meaningful change in the evolving financial landscape.
Ben Harrison
Ben Harrison
Partner, Head of Partnerships & Policy Portage/SagardBen Harrison has served as partner and head of partnerships and policy at Sagard since 2018. With a particular focus on Portage, Ben leads the partnerships team whose mission is to help Sagard’s investors maximize the strategic value of their investment, identifying and facilitating commercial partnerships between limited partners and portfolio companies, and deliver actionable insights on market trends and developments in collaboration with the investment and value creation teams. Ben also leads Sagard’s government affairs mandate and has helped to position the organization as a differentiated voice for pro- competition and innovation policy developments. He is a member of Portage’s investment committee and the value creation team, and is based in Toronto, Canada.
Prior to Sagard, Ben spent more than 15 years at Canada Life in senior level strategy, product development and marketing roles across the organization, most recently serving as the Head of Innovation for Canada.
Ben holds a BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University and also sits on the board of Fintechs Canada and is a member of the Digital Identity Laboratory’s advisory panel. Source: Portage
Derrick Smith
Derrick Smith
Vice-President, Operations & Optimization UNI Financial CooperationDerrick 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
Don Cardinal
Founder DTX AdviceDon Cardinal served as managing director of the Financial Data Exchange (FDX) since its inception and stepped down in May 2025. Cardinal led 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, and security. Since its launch in October 2018 with 21 founding members, Cardinal has grown the nonprofit standards body to over 185 member organizations and to build API specs that 114 million consumers rely on to safely access their financial data.
Don joined 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 latterly, 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.
Hanna Zaidi
Hanna Zaidi
Vice President Payments Strategy & Chief Compliance Officer WealthsimpleCanadians pay some of the highest banking fees in the world, and Hanna is using her voice to advocate for a payments system that puts Canadians first and makes everyday banking more affordable. She sits on Visa Canada’s advisory board, has been the youngest member welcomed to the Payments Canada member advisory council for the past three years, and has been named in DMZ’s 2023 Women of the Year list, The Peak’s 2022 Emerging Leaders list, and won the Women in Payments 2023 Innovator of the Year award.
Her commentary on payments innovation has been featured in BNN Bloomberg, the Globe and Mail, and other leading publications.
Hugh McKee
Hugh McKee
Head, BMO Partners BMO Financial GroupHugh 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.
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