Speakers

Alana Barnes serves as the Director of Digital in the Payments & Digital Division at the Canadian Bankers’ Association (CBA) where she leads the development of the industry’s digital policy positions. She provides strategic guidance and thought leadership on various emerging issues, including policy initiatives such as consumer-driven banking (open banking) and artificial intelligence. She is responsible for working with Canada’s banks to effectively advocate on behalf of the banking industry to positively shape policy development with key stakeholders in government in open banking.  Previously, Alana held several positions as an Advisor at the CBA where she led research and development of industry responses on issues such as digital currencies and non-financial risk, including third-party risk management and cyber security.

Bernice Cheung brings 20 years of marketing research and management consulting experience from various industries, including financial services, consumer goods, retail, and healthcare. She helps clients with both qualitative (in-person & online focus groups, in-depth-interviews) and quantitative (surveys, in-person intercepts) market research. She enjoys helping clients with customer valuation, segmentation, targeting, brand studies, and product & ad testing studies.

At Environics, Bernice leads the Syndicated Group Plan Sponsor Study, an annual quantitative study that examines group plan sponsors’ perception on group health, retirement & savings providers and their decision-making process. In addition, she leads the Syndicated FinTech Study, which examines Canadians’ view of Financial Technology offerings and demand for innovation. She also enjoys consulting with clients on a variety of interesting business challenges and creating custom solutions for them.

Bernice is a frequent speaker at conferences – specializing in insights about financial technology, open banking, and consumer perception of fintech adoption.  Most recently she spoke at the FinTech Summit, Payments Canada Summit, and Women in Payments conferences.  Since 2018, she conducts an annual study of 2,000 Canadians named the Canadian Syndicated FinTech Study, which explores Canadians’ perceptions related to technology adoption in various financial transactions, brand awareness, usage and trust of fintech companies.

A member of the Environics Research Group since 2015, she received her MBA from Ivey Business School, with a concentration in marketing and strategy, and an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree with distinction from DeGroote School of Business.

Bhavna Kaushal has 20 years experience in both Fintech and Fortune 100 companies spanning Banking, Consulting, Payments and Loyalty. She currently provides independent advisory services in these areas. Most recently she led strategic partnerships for Scotiabank’s international retail and digital business, and was charged with the design and rollout of a transformative payments digitization mandate and multi-product loyalty strategy, across 25+ LAC markets. Previously she spearheaded partnerships and payments strategy at Berkeley Payments, a high growth Canadian fintech, and led payments innovation at American Express. Bhavna is a frequent thought leader at industry forums, and has served on boards and committees, helping shape industry dialogues with Euromonitor International, the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization and the Association of Card Technology in Canada. She is the 2023 recipient of the Women in Payments Canada Social Impact and Sustainability award. Bhavna has an MBA from the Schulich School of Business.

Explorer, Teacher, Coach

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, 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 use 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 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”

Jude Leclerc is the Head of Treasury Services for JPMorgan Canada. In her role, Jude is responsible for setting product direction and go-to-market strategies for Payments, Cards, and Liquidity, enhancing client relations, generating revenue and franchise growth, and ensuring operational excellence.

Jude is a global banking and payments transformational leader with 20+ years of experience in business, operations and product management. She is a seasoned synthesizer and an integrated thinker who aims to make the complex clear, with a passion for product development, automation of processes, and digitally-driven designs.

Jude has worked in organizations across Canada, the US and the United Kingdom (UK). For 10 years, Jude worked at the Bank of Canada and subsequently Payments Canada, the country’s clearing and settlement body, where she focused on Payment Operations, Regulatory Policy and Government Relations. Upon her arrival in the UK, Jude joined HSBC’s Payments and Cash Management team and held roles in Sales and Business Management driving the formulation and execution of strategic initiatives and ensuring robust financial planning for the business. After 7 years, Jude returned to Canada to lead HSBC’s Payments and Cash Management Product team, where she delivered large scale programs from ideation to commercialization across US and Canada. Leveraging her years of experience, Jude is now focused on JP Morgan’s Canadian franchise.

Jude is a graduate of the University of Ottawa (Canada) and holds both an Honours Degree in Communications and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA).

Judy Bei is a Managing Director at Citigroup based in New York. She is the Global Head of Domestic Payments Product for Citi’s Services business.

Judy has more than 20 years’ experience in banking and consulting industries in the United States and in Asia. Prior to this role Judy spent four and half years at Standard Chartered Bank as the Global Head of Payments Product and then as the Managing Director of Group Strategy based in Singapore. Before Standard Chartered Judy was in various global and regional leadership roles at Citigroup based in New York, managing institutional and consumer banking products. She launched the world’s first open loop transit payment platform in New York and advised Fortune 500 corporations on cash management. At the beginning of her career, Judy spent four years in management consulting helping multi-national corporations develop growth strategies. Judy was born in China and has an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. She has three daughters and enjoys spending time with friends and family.

Michael Cascone is the Vice President of Government Experience, Americas, at Xero. Prior to joining Xero in 2021, Michael was the founding Senior Director of the Scale-Up Institute Toronto at the Toronto Region Board of Trade. He led the launch of the small business accelerator, and ran a number of high impact programs focused on small business growth and digitization. In his time leading the organization, the Scale-Up Institute Toronto supported over 2,000 small businesses across Ontario, securing significant private and public sector investment, and winning the 2020 Ontario Chamber of Commerce Chair’s Award for Innovative Programming.Michael also has over ten years of experience in both the federal and provincial governments, focusing on innovation and scale-up policy, trade agreement negotiation, and the automotive sector. He actively participates in the small business research community as well, acting as an expert advisor on a number of research councils. He is the Vice Chair and Treasurer of the Scugog Township Economic Development Advisory Committee.

With over 20 years of experience in IT delivery and digital strategy, Natacha is an innovation leader and key player in National Bank of Canada’s digital transformation. She led the implementation of the first iteration of the Bank’s open banking channel and she is currently Business Lead in its Open Banking Center of Expertise.

An avid soccer player, Natacha brings a spirited energy on and off the field. She is involved in many leadership programs, as a coach and mentor, notably at National Bank, in the L’Effet A program and during conferences, such as Numérique au féminin.

An experienced digital technology executive with a background of transforming high volume mission critical platforms for open banking, digital channels and payments.

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.

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.

Shruti is a purpose-driven Product leader with 15+ years of global experience spanning South East Asia, Middle East and Canada and Joined CIBC in April’21 where she launched the Costco Onboarding & Engagement journeys. She is currently working as a Director, Open Banking Strategy at CIBC leading Industry & Government engagement, Value Add Use cases and Data enablement Strategy. Shruti is also the Co-lead of CIBC’s International Professionals Network, an employee network helping newcomers in the bank. Shruti identifies herself as an intersectional feminist and believes in equality of opportunities and pay for women.

Stephanie Zee is Vice President, Enterprise Data Protection at Scotiabank. She has responsibility for the governance and oversight for Data Protection across the Scotiabank global footprint. Stephanie has more than 20 years of experience in treasury and card product management and innovation, sales and marketing, banking operations, and Payments, Operational, AML, Fraud and Cyber risk management.

Stephanie has earned the ICD.D designation for Corporate Governance from the Rotman School of Business, a Master of Laws Degree from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, and a Master of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.