CIO Blog

Rita Lazar-Tippe has over 25 years of experience in Digital Transformation and Innovation, comprising of private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. In her current role with Alberta Pensions Services Corporations, she serves as the Director of Information, Data Insights, Corporate Innovation, and IT Operations. The organization provides administrative services to more than 500 employers across Alberta with over 370,000 members and pensioners and administers $6 billion annually in pension plan funds. Rita has created and is executing on a multiyear strategic plan to deliver a 360 view of the member and pensioner, shifting to a selfservice data model, incorporating AI to elevate business insights and decision making. Created and implemented a corporate wide innovation program to both optimize and enhance the employee and customer experience. Created and executing on various digital transformation initiatives.

Speaking: May 5

The role of the CIO is evolving, but to what?

The world of business has changed drastically over the past two years. With in-person interactions limited, technology and business executives, sales teams, functional leads and, well, everyone else in Canadian organizations has had to adjust. For CIOs this adjustment has been compounded by the growing importance of technology to an organization’s bottom line and, often, the need for accelerated, transformative projects to address business needs. The role of the CIO is evolving, but to what? What does the ‘CIO of the Future’ look like?

A group of CIOCAN members debated several questions in an open forum to discuss not only how the role has already changed, but also:

How has the process for making purchasing decisions changed over the course of the last two year
How the role of your vendors and partners has evolved
Are those changes here to stay?
How the evolution of technology as a business driver has added to a CIO’s scope of responsibilities

This session will share the results of these discussions and the resulting white paper.

As Chief Information Officer (CIO) Lisa Inness is responsible for RPRA’s Information Technology systems, developing and operating on-line registry and digital reporting systems that supports Ontario’s advancement to a circular economy and waste reduction.

Lisa is an experienced technology leader bringing over 20 years of experience in IT executive management roles in the public, private and not-for-profit sector.  This experience includes extensive experience in IT delivery of large-scale transformational initiatives, organizational design & change management, relationship management, and Innovation.

Currently Lisa serves on the Advisory Board of Ryerson's Business Technology Management program and is Board member of the CIO Association of Canada.

Speaking: May 5

The role of the CIO is evolving, but to what?

The world of business has changed drastically over the past two years. With in-person interactions limited, technology and business executives, sales teams, functional leads and, well, everyone else in Canadian organizations has had to adjust. For CIOs this adjustment has been compounded by the growing importance of technology to an organization’s bottom line and, often, the need for accelerated, transformative projects to address business needs. The role of the CIO is evolving, but to what? What does the ‘CIO of the Future’ look like?

A group of CIOCAN members debated several questions in an open forum to discuss not only how the role has already changed, but also:

How has the process for making purchasing decisions changed over the course of the last two year
How the role of your vendors and partners has evolved
Are those changes here to stay?
How the evolution of technology as a business driver has added to a CIO’s scope of responsibilities

This session will share the results of these discussions and the resulting white paper.

Philip Fasano was an EVP and the CIO at American International Group (AIG) and Kaiser Permanente. Fasano also served in IT leadership roles at Capital One Financial, JP Morgan Chase, and Deutsche Financial Services, among others. In 2017, Fasano was inducted into the CIO Hall of Fame by CIO Magazine. Fasano currently serves on the Board of Trustees at the New York Institute of Technology and as a CIO Advisor at Tanium.

Speaking: May 13

Cybersecurity Best Practices: From the Lens of a CEO/CIO/Board Member

Join this session to hear Phil’s perspective on how he’s lead security teams in various industries and now serves on Boards to help organizations see around corners before the next attack happens. Phil will discuss his experience with technology and digital transformation delivering a superior employee, customer, and patient experience. He’ll cover how organizations can secure legacy IT systems and how to navigate those complexities to make security more efficient and effective. Lastly, he’ll touch on current topics of distributed IT assets, sensitive data, tool sprawl, supply chain risk, and the post-pandemic hybrid workforce.

Steve Biswanger’s career has focused on cybersecurity for over 25 years. Working with large consulting companies and boutique cybersecurity firms around the world he has improved security for organizations like Verizon, Google, Yahoo! and the United Nations in industries such as online casinos, Japanese banking, oil & gas and telecommunications. A deep technical background combined with a passion for practical governance is a unique combination that allows him to translate risks and requirements from both perspectives. His current role as CISO for ATCO puts him on the leading edge of risk management for the global infrastructure and logistics company. Steve is also Past President of the CISO Division of the CIO Association of Canada where he fosters an environment of information sharing and helps prepare the next generation of cybersecurity executives to be successful. One thing that has been true throughout his career, It’s not about security. It’s about trust.

Check out Steve's Twitter.

Speaking: May 11

Leverage IT and IoT to drive a revolution in OT!

Steve Biswanger believes it is time to rethink how we protect and leverage OT systems. Traditionally critical infrastructure and operational technology (OT) environments have been separated from IT environments for security. This solves the security problem, but creates significant business challenges as we evolve to data driven organizations. We don't separate critical IT systems this way: HR or Finance don’t have separate environments for their systems. What can we learn from the IT environments to improve our OT environments. Changes to critical systems usually take a long time, so can we wait to evolve, or is it time for a design revolution? Steve proposes a three step plan to go from segregated SCADA OT, to an OT revolution that unlocks critical data for the new world.

An experienced C-suite executive, Guy has 35 years of engineering leadership developing cloud-based systems, products, and engineering & manufacturing test solutions for a wide variety of industries. He is an author of the award-winning book “Proactive Risk Management: Controlling Uncertainty in Product Development”.

Speaking: May 10

Journey to FinOps: The Critical First 90-days

Cost is not the benefit of moving to the cloud; agility is. Moving from a CAPEX model for IT spend to an OPEX model presents a myriad of challenges for every enterprise considering such a move. And most of those challenges are not technical, but organizational and cultural. Any enterprise wishing to leverage the true power of the public cloud will have to rethink its approach to balancing the speed, cost and quality of its technology solutions.

The FinOps Foundation describes Cloud Financial Operations, or FinOps, as the practice of bringing financial accountability to the variable spend model of cloud, thereby enabling distributed teams to make business trade-offs between speed, cost, and quality. In short, FinOps is about making the cloud a cost-effective solution for your enterprise. Successfully implementing a mature FinOps practice in your enterprise requires a well-considered approach.

In this talk, led by Ted Schmidt, Enterprise Cloud Solutions Principal and Guy Merritt, Vice President, Solutions & Consulting for SoftServe Inc., we will discuss the practical side of FinOps, including:

1. What is FinOps
2. Who Needs It and Why
3. The First 90 Days of FinOps
a. Evolving from CAPEX to OPEX thinking
b. Assembling the FinOps Team
c. Communicating Expectations
d. Why Automation is Key
e. Maturing a Cloud-Savvy Enterprise
4. A FinOps Roadmap
5. Case Studies

Romanus Prabhu Raymond is the Global head of technical support for endpoint management & security at ManageEngine, a division of Zoho Corp. With over 18 years of experience spanning from the legacy client management to modern endpoint management & security solution domains, he directly oversees consultation, implementation and partner coordination across the globe. Being no stranger to the stage, he holds the title of ME guru, providing direction and ideas to many professionals and peers in his field.

Check out Romanus' LinkedIn.
Check out Romanus' Twitter.

Speaking: May 3

Unifying endpoint strategies for enterprise

Understanding the risk that the enterprise business endpoints have to face in the modern threat landscape. Prepare, not to panic about the known and unknown real time vulnerabilities. Recommending a practical approach in securing endpoints through the layered approach strategy.

Key takeaways
1. Understand the modern attack trends
2. Big picture of changing attack surface
3. Predict and protect your endpoints from attacks
4. Strategic approach to protect your network endpoints
5. Getting the threat actor's perspective of your network endpoints

Lee is a senior leader with extensive experience in management, strategy, financial planning, sponsorship, communications, digital transformation, marketing, and communications. She is currently the Executive Director of the CIO Association of Canada and was previously Global Marketing Officer at Six Trends, a global digital agency. Lee has worked with a variety of clients in her leadership role at Six Trends, helping them to grow through digital transformation. She now uses her extensive skills to grow the CIO Association of Canada’s profile in Canada and abroad through membership and partnership growth. Lee has also held senior roles at Proudfoot Consulting, Gilda’s Club, Pathways to Education, and OCAD University.

Check out Lee's LinkedIn.

Speaking: May 4

Building a new member experience - Career Development Centre

Join Lee Rennick, Executive Director, and special guests from Randstad to update you on new member benefits.  Peer Forum will kick off the launch of the new CIOCAN Career Development Centre where members will find information about how to improve your performance and boost your career.  In addition, we will be discussing the launch of a new Peer Value Exchange Program.

Ted Schmidt has led highly successful enterprise technology transformations and is passionate about delivering cloud-based solutions to solve complex business and industry challenges. He has held leadership positions in Product Management, IT Operations, and built the Global Cloud Center of Excellence and FinOps practice for a major international manufacturer. In his current role, he has advised enterprises in the financial services and manufacturing verticals on building and maturing viable FinOps practices. Ted holds a BA in Management from Eckerd College and a master’s degree in business management from University of South Florida. Ted also holds multiple certifications in AWS, Azure, Organizational Change, Agile Methodologies, FinOps and Project & Program Management. Ted has extensive experience collaborating with business and IT executives globally, creating strategies and roadmaps to deliver both commercial and enterprise solutions.

Speaking: May 10

Journey to FinOps: The Critical First 90-days

Cost is not the benefit of moving to the cloud; agility is. Moving from a CAPEX model for IT spend to an OPEX model presents a myriad of challenges for every enterprise considering such a move. And most of those challenges are not technical, but organizational and cultural. Any enterprise wishing to leverage the true power of the public cloud will have to rethink its approach to balancing the speed, cost and quality of its technology solutions.

The FinOps Foundation describes Cloud Financial Operations, or FinOps, as the practice of bringing financial accountability to the variable spend model of cloud, thereby enabling distributed teams to make business trade-offs between speed, cost, and quality. In short, FinOps is about making the cloud a cost-effective solution for your enterprise. Successfully implementing a mature FinOps practice in your enterprise requires a well-considered approach.

In this talk, led by Ted Schmidt, Enterprise Cloud Solutions Principal and Guy Merritt, Vice President, Solutions & Consulting for SoftServe Inc., we will discuss the practical side of FinOps, including:

1. What is FinOps
2. Who Needs It and Why
3. The First 90 Days of FinOps
a. Evolving from CAPEX to OPEX thinking
b. Assembling the FinOps Team
c. Communicating Expectations
d. Why Automation is Key
e. Maturing a Cloud-Savvy Enterprise
4. A FinOps Roadmap
5. Case Studies

John Engates  joined Cloudflare in September of 2021 as Field Chief Technology Officer and is responsible for leading the global Field CTO organization. Prior to Cloudflare, John was Client CTO at NTT Global Networks and Global CTO at Rackspace Technology, Inc. Earlier in his career, John helped launch one of the first Internet service providers in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas.

John is a graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio and resides in Texas with his wife and two daughters. He is passionate about technology but also enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding, off-roading, and spending time traveling with his family.

Speaking: April 29

The Invisible Internet: It plays such a critical role in our lives so why isn’t it a bigger part of the conversation?

The move to hybrid work has raised the profile and importance of the Internet as the corporate backbone for modern business. It’s the only network that connects everyone and everything and yet the Internet is often treated as a black box from the standpoint of the IT organization. Tapping into his 26 years of experience in the Internet industry, John Engates, Field CTO at Cloudflare, will share details about emerging cybersecurity threats, Zero Trust, current Internet trends in Ukraine and Cloudflare’s vision on how the Internet is poised to take on a much larger role in the traditional enterprise network.

Randolph is a Vice Chairman at Cushman & Wakefield with 36 years of experience in data center and portfolio optimization site acquisition and disposition, lease negotiations, and over 37 years of experience in Commercial Real Estate. His data center expertise covers site selection, risk analysis, portfolio strategy, Real Estate strategic planning, and account management. He is one of the founding members of Cushman & Wakefield’s Data Center Advisory Group. This highly specialized group is made up of uniquely qualified real estate brokers who understand the specialized requirements of mission critical environments. He ensures that his client’s real estate solutions create optimum efficiency and minimized risk while meeting the business’ needs.

Randolph is a consistent top producer in Cushman & Wakefield, achieving Top 100 recognition in the Americas every year since 2012. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario with an Honors Degree in Urban Development and Economics. He is a member of SIOR, CoreNet Global, and NAIOP, TREB, OREA, CREA, AFCOM and is on the Foundation Board of Providence Healthcare.

Major clients include: AT&T, Bell Canada, Blackboard, Bank of Montreal, Brown Brothers Harriman, CentriLogic, CenturyLink, CGI, Cogeco, Cologix, Dell, Digital Realty, Dupont Fabros, Equinix, Ericsson Canada, Facebook, Global Crossing, IBM, Level 3, Loblaws, Microsoft, Networks, Royal Bank of Canada, Rogers, SoftLayer, Sun Life Financial, TELUS, TeraGo Networks and Toronto-Dominion Bank

Awards: Cushman & Wakefield’s Hall of Fame, 2014 induction/CoreNet REmmy Award for Innovative Workplace, 2014/SIOR Broker of the Year, 2015 & 2016/NAIOP REX Award Transaction of the Year, 2015/Power Broker of the Year, 2016 CoStar/Top Producer in Canada – ongoing/Cushman & Wakefield’s President’s Round Table Honors consistently/Awarded the Cushman & Wakefield’s Award of Excellence

Speaking: May 6

Digital Innovation: What are other organizations doing to optimize their IT platforms?

The continued acceleration of Digital Transformation is creating disruption within organizations and the marketplace. Many public and private organizations have adopted multi-faceted strategies to support their IT platforms and are balancing cloud, collocation and owned data centers. Some organizations are developing new global best practices for their digital portfolios that will support their businesses into the future. The successes and mistakes of others and the evolving challenges within the data center industry provide useful examples of what to do and what not to do to optimize your IT platform and avoid risks.

What are the top 5 best practices for owned and leased data centers, colocation and cloud transformation?
What are the top 5 dos and don’ts to create a strategic plan for your IT platform in an age of disruption?
What are the top 5 evolving risks of digital transformation that you need to be aware of and prepared for?

Dana is a SailPoint Distinguished Sales Engineer and Lead Sales Liaison for SailPoint’s AI led ‘Predictive Identity’ product. Dana has 20 years in Identity Management, having applied IGA experience in most vertical markets, including Health Care, Retail, Finance, Defense, and Higher Education. Dana’s career IAM experience spans the full breadth of IAM related responsibilities, including Software Development, Implementation, Design, Business Process Consulting, Software Sales, & Sales Engineering.

Speaking: May 11th

The under appreciated role of Identity Security in your business.

Identity and Identity security has never been more relevant and core to the success and security of today’s business. This session will explore Identity related market trends, business drivers and the ways in which a well thought-out and funded Identity program can act as an under appreciated catalyst toward achieving your business outcomes.

Carolyn Levy is Group President of Randstad Technologies Group & Chief Diversity Officer, Randstad, Canada. In the context of accelerated pace of new and emerging technologies, Carolyn steers the strategic direction of two complementary divisions: Randstad Technologies, a Canadian leader in matching exceptional tech talent with leading organizations across the country, and IT Solutions, who provide on demand IT services, software development and strategy. A forward-thinker and a transformational, inclusive leader, Carolyn leads a highly-skilled and passionate team of experts working in all areas of the tech and IT landscape, and is committed to support employers in sourcing top talent and implementing innovative projects that will shape their business.

Speaking: April 26th 

Unlock the power of diversity: how to cultivate intentional and inclusive leadership

For many years, Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) was a problem to solve, or worse yet, a box to check. But today’s reality demands a different approach: one that requires organizations to embed diversity in all parts of their organization. To build and foster a culture of respect, inclusion and belonging, organizations need to demonstrate courage, accountability, and persistence - and it starts at the top. Meaningful change requires unwavering commitment and steady, ongoing improvement. Through this session, you will reflect on your current approach to diversity and explore the next steps you can take to move it towards a true sustainable, long-term and strategic focus.