Ask Me Anything: The Road Less Travelled – Women Charting Their Own Paths.

CPD confirmed: 1 hour EDI professionalism

Join us in celebrating International Women’s Day with a fireside chat, cocktails, and sit-down dinner with colleagues and friends as we discuss what it means to chart a path as a woman in tech.  

Take the conversation deeper as our esteemed panelist join the tables to continue the conversation. This event creates a unique environment for our attendees to engage with speakers and with each other while learning about individual journeys.
 
For International Women’s Day 2023, the Women in Technology Committee at CAN-TECH will be hosting five extraordinary women who will share their stories about pushing boundaries by charting their own paths and choosing non-conventional legal careers or pivoting along the way.
 
The underrepresentation of women in law and tech is not a new topic, and even though progress has been made, there is still work to be done. Join us for a fireside chat, cocktails, and dinner with five women who have overcome the stereotype, challenged the world, took the road less travelled, and continue to inspire a new generation of women to do more and be more.
 
At this interactive event, we will have a fireside chat with our speakers, followed by cocktails, and then a dinner with one of our speakers at each table.
 
Ask her anything.

Co-Chairs:

• Wendes Keung, Torys LLP
• Claire Davis, HOOPP

Moderator:

• Lisa Danay-Wallace, WeirFoulds LLP

Speakers include:

Faren Bogach, Founder of Construct Legal

Faren Bogach is a lawyer and the founder of Construct Legal, a law firm focused on construction and infrastructure law. Prior to founding Construct Legal, Faren was a partner at a large law firm in downtown Toronto. Faren founded Pay Prompt Inc., a software company that helps user navigate complex legislation (the prompt payment regime of the Construction Act) without needing to consult a lawyer. Faren also has extensive board experience. Faren is currently the vice-chair of two not-for-profit organizations that provide and are developing affordable housing in Toronto. She was formerly a director of Alterna Savings & Credit Union and the Canadian Association of Women in Construction.

Bindu Cudjoe, Chief Legal Officer, Chief Inclusion and Equity Officer and Corporate Secretary of Laurentian Bank of Canada

Bindu Cudjoe is the Chief Legal Officer, Chief Inclusion and Equity Officer and Corporate Secretary for Laurentian Bank of Canada, serving as a member of its executive team. She leads the legal, corporate secretariat and regulatory risk management functions responsible.

Previously, she was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for CWB Financial Group, and prior to that served in a series of more progressive roles at BMO Financial Group, most recently as Vice President, Deputy General Counsel – Technology and Operations & Chief Knowledge Officer.  Bindu began her legal career at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP and continued as Partner with McMillan LLP in the financial services group.

Lisa Ford, Royal Bank of Canada

Lisa Ford is RBC Senior Director, Enterprise Payments - Business Risk & Industry Affairs. In this role, Lisa leads a team responsible for interbank operations, business risk, and industry affairs for enterprise payments. Lisa and her team provide strategic direction to manage key business risks across payments transformation initiatives, while navigating ongoing compliance with the complex set of rules and systems underpinning RBC’s participation in multiple payments networks around the world, including Payments Canada, Interac, and SWIFT. Lisa is also RBC lead in multiple industry forums, including with Payments Canada and the Canadian Bankers Association. 

Lisa has extensive experience with over 18 years with the RBC Law Group, supporting many areas of the bank, including business deposits, cash management, digital solutions, lending, open banking, and payments. As industry Co-chair for Payments Canada’s Legal and Policy Group, she has also been instrumental in developing the new legal and regulatory framework for Payments Canada’s new high-value payments system (Lynx) and upcoming real-time rail (RTR) payments system. As Co-chair of RBC Law Group’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee for several years, Lisa has also been a champion for diversity and inclusion in RBC’s workplace and the broader community. 

Pinar Ozyetis, General Counsel of StackAdapt

Pinar is the General Counsel of StackAdapt, the self-serve programmatic advertising platform used by the most exceptional digital marketers. Pinar oversees all legal matters for StackAdapt on a global scale, including commercial, corporate, privacy, compliance and intellectual property matters. She strives to weave principles of integrity, positivity and collaboration into every interaction to help build strong teams and strong corporate performance. Before joining StackAdapt, Pinar was General Counsel and a corporate officer of another major Canadian company in the advertising/marketing space, and prior to that, spent 12 years with a Toronto law firm where she was a partner in the Business Law group. Pinar is passionate about giving back; she has acted as Executive sponsor to several women’s initiatives, as corporate secretary to an environmental not-for-profit, and volunteered as a gardener/chief weeder at the Toronto Botanical Gardens.Pinar holds a Hons. Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto and a law degree from the University of Western Ontario. 

Carole Piovesan, Managing Partner of INQ Law

Carole is a managing partner at INQ Law and global leader in artificial intelligence (AI). She practices in privacy, cyber readiness, data governance and AI risk management, with a focus on ethical AI and responsible innovation. A seasoned former litigator and data co-lead for a national firm, Carole has testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) and has been involved in multiple data governance committees for the federal government, national sector committees, the Global Partnership on AI, and acts as acting as advisor to several AI companies. Carole is co-editor of a recently released Thomson Reuters book, Leading Legal Disruption: Artificial Intelligence and a Toolkit for Lawyers and the Law. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law where she teaches on AI law and policy.

Location is at the beautiful Archeo restaurant in the Distillery District.

We have capped this event at 50 people (5 tables of 10 attendees; 1 speaker per table), if you would like to attend, please register immediately but no later than 12 noon on February 28, 2023. We look forward to seeing everyone there!

Thank you to our Sponsors!

PLEASE REVIEW IF ATTENDING:

1. We highly recommend all attendees be fully vaccinated.
2. The venue will be following all local government protocols. Refer to  amp;source=gmail&ust=1657300732842000&usg=AOvVaw0ycZrc4qlRLPeY37fOe_KV">https://covid-19.ontario.ca/public-health-measures
3. Stay home if you feel unwell or are exhibiting any COVID-19 symptoms. If unwell, we ask you to complete a COVID-19 test and quarantine until a negative result is confirmed. If needed, COVID-19 tests can be purchased locally. Please note, with currently circulating COVID-19 variants, it is common for rapid tests to be unable to detect COVID-19 until several days into infection – hence even if you have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 and are testing negative, please do not attend. 

There are no refunds.