Abhishek 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.

Andrew Graham is co-founder and CEO of Borrowell, one of Canada’s largest financial technology companies, with over three million users. Borrowell helps consumers find financial prosperity and make great decisions about their money. It was the first company in Canada to offer credit scores for free and to allow consumers to report rent payments to Equifax in order to build credit history. Today, Borrowell offers products and recommendations across a consumer’s financial journey.

Borrowell has won numerous awards, including being named one of the top 100 fintech companies in the world by KPMG, one of the fifty fastest-growing technology companies in Canada by Deloitte, and one of the top 50 “”Best Workplaces in Canada”” multiple times. For his work building Borrowell, Andrew was named an EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019.

Andrew holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MA in economics from the University of Edinburgh. He is chair of the board of Fintechs Canada.

Andrew joined Equitable Bank (TSX: EQB) as chief executive officer in 2007. His focus in recent years has been on positioning Equitable Bank as Canada’s challenger bank. Andrew has been establishing EQ Bank as a leading digital banking player, with an easy-to-use mobile app that offers a unique combination of payments functionality and great savings rates. Equitable Bank is Canada’s seventh largest bank by assets, with $132 billion in combined assets under management and administration. Equitable was a founding shareholder in Borrowell and participates in the Portage ecosystem through an investment in the Portage II Fund, giving the bank a view into the Canadian fintech ecosystem.

Andrew is a keen observer of the challenger and neobank community around the world, particularly in the UK and Europe. He is interested in how banks can leverage technology to improve the societies in which they operate.

Andrew is a member of the executive council of the Canadian Bankers Association, chairman of The Trust Companies Association of Canada, board member of Nesto Inc., and a member of the Smith School of Business advisory board at Queen’s University.

Ben 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

David is a financial services executive helping banks and credit unions navigate open banking and open finance. At CGI, he shapes strategies that modernize legacy systems, unlocks data-driven innovation, and enable ecosystem connectivity. David bridges business and technology to accelerate adoption across Canadian and global markets.

Dominique Samson is the newly-appointed chief operating officer at Flinks, a Montreal-based financial data company that allows consumers to conveniently and securely share their financial data with the applications they love. In his role as chief operating officer, Dominique will oversee business operational excellence, talent management, risk management, and industry partnerships. He continues to play a key role in pioneering data portability frameworks across North America and remains actively engaged in leading fintech associations. Prior to this, he most recently served as vice president of corporate affairs at Flinks and has been instrumental to Flinks’ growth over the past six years, or more.

Dominique holds degrees in law and computer science. He was previously an officer in the Canadian Armed Forces and a fraud investigator for the United Nations.”

Don 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.

Most recently, Franklin served as vice president, external ecosystems at TD, and recently stepped down after nearly 17 years at the bank. In his role at TD, he developed a team focused on developing emerging business models to help customers in collaboration with external stakeholders. Franklin contributed to industry ecosystems developments in US and Canadian markets, including the Open Banking standard (FDX), utilities, and marketplaces. He also led the TD Fintech Strategic Fund to invest in key third party relationships.

Franklin previously represented 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 three kids.

Canadians 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.

Jade Chiles is an entrepreneur who has impacted lives. As a paramedic serving the community of Edmonton, Alberta, Jade saw a critical problem: the headlights on ambulance vehicles were too dim for important rescue work at night. He immediately founded an LED headlamp company to solve the problem, and the community has thanked him ever since.

As the co-founder, former CEO, and now chief marketing officer of Ordr (https://ordr.io/), Jade has been at the centre of its growth. He built the platform to solve mobile ordering and in-seat delivery (after missing a fight between the Oilers and Maple Leafs while up getting food), but quickly transitioned it to address a much bigger problem. Ordr is now serving dozens of venues and teams across Canada and the US, proving the open platform’s strength on a big stage.

He’s passionate about solving real problems with smart technology and creating experiences that just work. He is a father of two children and loves to spend time giving back. In short, Jade is a forward-thinker helping shape the future of open payments in Canada.

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 from Western in 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, distribution and channels strategy, and leading a product group. 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 using technology to make things easier.

Digital transformation is the perfect next step, and I have been with Mainstreet Credit Union, making it even easier for our members to do business with us.

My career so far has helped me uncover my purpose:

– use my positivity and ability to challenge to bring a smile to everyone I meet
– and for those willing, help them achieve their adventure

I live in London with my wife, Jen, our three-year-old daughter, Eva, and our menagerie of dogs (Oliver, Piper, and Morgan) and cat, 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 recognised 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’re likely to find me in a coffee shop in any of our many towns.

Sharing my favourites:

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

Julien Cousineau is the CEO of Flinks, leading the company’s mission to provide secure, reliable financial technology that empowers businesses to build better financial products and services. Throughout his career, founding and scaling multiple successful data-driven ventures, Julien has developed a unique perspective at the intersection of finance and data portability.

Lewis Poe leads Caspian One Open Data as CEO, providing strategic direction and fostering innovation in the evolving digital finance landscape. A global technology leader, he brings deep expertise in open data, pioneering Canada’s first-to-market FDX Standards solution for a major Canadian bank. Drawing on 19 years of financial markets history, including serving as Global Head of Equity Derivatives at Deutsche Bank, his influence spans North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. Under his guidance, Caspian One Open Data is now driving go-live efforts and digital transformation for credit unions across Canada and the U.S.

Mathew Graham is a seasoned UX designer and fintech entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in banking, insurance, and workforce technology. As the founder and CEO of GIGAMATIC, he leads a mission-driven platform that empowers gig workers, freelancers, and independent contractors by providing access to financial services, insurance, and benefits traditionally reserved for full-time employees.

With a background in user experience design, Mathew has a track record of building customer-centric products that drive growth and foster inclusivity. His work at GIGAMATIC reflects a deep understanding of the challenges faced by non-traditional workers, aiming to bridge the gap between gig economy participants and essential financial tools.

Mathew is a vocal advocate for the future of work, contributing thought leadership on topics such as decentralised finance (DeFi), Open Banking, and the evolving gig economy. His insights have been featured in various publications, and he actively engages with communities to promote equitable solutions for modern workers.

Patrick Barr is an experienced finance and technology professional, passionate about how the two fields can be brought together to improve financial services for Canadians.

He is the director of deposit relations at Concentra Bank (a wholly owned subsidiary of Equitable Bank), where he leads efforts to strengthen wholesale deposit partnerships with credit unions across Canada. He also oversees the credit union line of credit product as well as derivative oversight.

Prior to joining Concentra / Equitable Bank, Patrick was director of strategy and programs at the Large Credit Union Coalition (LCUC), and previously worked in government relations at the Canadian Credit Union Association (CCUA).

Sabena Sandhu is the manager of policy at the Canadian Credit Union Association. In this role, she is the association’s advocate on national policy files, including payments modernisation, digital ID, and, of course, consumer-driven banking. She seeks to ensure the unique needs of credit unions are effectively represented in federal initiatives and programs.

Where possible, Sabena is committed to fostering alignment between Canada’s provincially regulated credit unions and federally regulated financial institutions, advocating for regulatory and legislative coherence across the country. With a strong focus on driving positive change, she works to ensure that credit unions can thrive in an evolving financial landscape.

The Honourable Colin Deacon’s background as an entrepreneur provides a unique perspective in Canada’s Upper Chamber. Prior to joining the Senate, he ran several successful global businesses, the latest of which was Bluelight Analytics, a technology firm providing data tools to dental offices worldwide.

As part of the Senate, he has been a strong advocate for entrepreneurs, harnessing the digital economy, updating Canada’s privacy legislation, ensuring global competitiveness of Canadian firms, and promoting Canadian leadership on issues relating to climate change.

Senator Deacon was appointed to the Senate of Canada as a representative of Nova Scotia in June 2018 and has since been part of the Independent Senators Group.

Sue Britton is the retired chief innovation officer at Beem Credit Union, and has more than 30 years of experience in creating new products and solutions for the financial sector. She is the founder and chief executive officer of Firefly Growth, one of North America’s leading authorities on executing transformative growth through fintech innovation. She is a fintech expert, experienced both as a start-up founder and incumbent innovator. Sue also serves as an advisor and a committee member for FinPay, a cross-section of payments industry stakeholders.

Susan Hawkins is the president and chief executive officer of Payments Canada, leading the organization’s next phase of development to meet the evolving payment needs of Canadians. Under her leadership, Payments Canada is focused on modern payment technology solutions that are safer, smarter and more accessible for Canada. Susan brings more than 25 years of digital and payment innovation, product development and business leadership experience.

Prior to Susan’s appointment as President and CEO in August, 2024, she was the global head of enterprise payments and executive vice president of US Payments at TD Bank Group, where she led the modernization and governance of payment infrastructure and payment products working with teams in the US and Canada. In her role, Susan also played a pivotal role in building and commercializing a real-time payments solution. Throughout her career, Susan also held executive roles with Fidelity Global Information Services and Metavante Payment Solutions. Source: Payments Canada

Tom Carpenter is the Senior Vice President for Global Policy & Industry Engagement at Mastercard where he leads advocacy and policy development on both open banking and open finance with regulators, policymakers, industry partners and standards bodies. Tom has been at the forefront of open finance for more than a decade guiding government affairs for companies in the ecosystem, helping launch and lead the Financial Data Exchange and now driving open finance policy for Mastercard.

Yassir is passionate about empowering consumers with financial products and services that enable them to realise their full economic potential. As part of Deloitte’s Open Banking practice, Yassir helps clients identify and activate insights from Open Banking data to deliver enhanced financial services to consumers.

Prior to Deloitte, Yassir worked at a multinational credit bureau where he engaged with clients to solution new products and processes to benefit underserved populations leveraging financial transactional data and led Open Banking readiness initiatives. Before consulting, Yassir was on the “client side” working in the banking industry, including 10 years leading retail deposit solutions and pricing in the Canadian and international markets.