Hamza Khan is a multi-award-winning marketer, bestselling author, and global keynote speaker whose TEDx talk “Stop Managing, Start Leading” has been viewed over a million times. He shares actionable insights on resilience, productivity, and leadership to help people and organizations thrive in the future of work. Through his consulting, writing, teaching and speaking, Khan empowers people and businesses to transform ideas into action.

From New York to Singapore, from Los Angeles to Sydney, Khan is a global thought leader who has spoken to hundreds of audiences across many industries, in numerous countries. His clients have included some of the world’s most dynamic companies and organizations, including PepsiCo, LinkedIn, Deloitte, PwC, Trivago, and over 100 colleges, and his insights have been featured by notable media outlets such as VICE, Business Insider, and The Globe and Mail. He is also the author of Amazon bestseller The Burnout Gamble: Achieve More by Beating Burnout and Building Resilience. 

Khan works alongside young people and new talent as Managing Director of Student Life Network, Canada’s largest and most comprehensive education resource platform, which reaches over 2.7 million students. He is also the co-founder of Splash Effect, a boutique marketing & creative agency, as well as SkillsCamp, a soft skills training company. As an educator, he is currently an instructor at Seneca College and Ryerson University, teaching courses on digital marketing and social media.

Every time you open your mouth, your prospects will be throwing money at you.  Learn the simple steps to wowing your customer with a perfect pitch with Precious L. Williams the #KillerPitch Master.  
Convert conversations into currency. Get the tools and tenacity to pitch with power, sell with storytelling and develop a masterful mindset for communication. It’s time for you to learn how to #SlayAllCompetition
Precious busts norms and shifts perspectives to help teams own their awesome and bring out their “wow” factor.  Your leaders, and teams will up their game — on their terms — in order to develop the cunning, clarity and confidence that’s been inside them all along. 
What’s more, they’ll get unstuck and discover a renewed and refreshed energy to own the mindset of the pitch in a way they never thought possible. If you’re ready to go from milquetoast to memorable, attracting and captivating your prospects while closing the sale in an authentic way, it’s time to #pitchforprofit
And you can bet, you’re going to have fun doing it!
Precious L. Williams is a 13-time national elevator pitch champion. She has also been featured on "Shark Tank," CNN, WSJ, Forbes Magazine, Black Enterprise Magazine, Essence Magazine, the movie "LEAP." Her current clients include Microsoft, LinkedIn, Google, eBay, and more. Precious is a dynamic speaker, effective trainer and bestselling author.
 

Brice Scheschuk, CPA, CA is the Managing Partner of Globalive Capital (www.globalive.com). He was a co-founder and CFO of WIND Mobile as well as CEO of Globalive Communications. Brice has over twenty-five years of experience building and operating companies at Globalive, WIND Mobile, Leitch Technology and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He obtained his CPA, CA designation at PricewaterhouseCoopers and B.Comm (Hon.) Finance from Dalhousie University. Brice served as a Maritime Surface Officer in the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve.

Brice serves on numerous boards and advisory committees (public, private, and not-for-profit) and is a frequent speaker on scale-up entrepreneurship and innovation. He is a co-founder of MindFrame Connect (www.mindframeconnect.com), a not-for-profit focused on elevating the craft of mentorship and improving entrepreneurial resiliency. Brice’s interests include Canada’s innovation and start-up ecosystem, entrepreneurial finance, mentorship excellence, resiliency, financial literacy, political moderation/centrism, military veteran transition, fitness, travel, good food, good books, and great friends.”

Outside of work, Brice enjoys spending time with family, fitness (running, yoga, strength training, etc.), good food and wine, travel and touring, and reading and continuous learning.

Michael Kravshik is the founder and CEO of LumiQ, a podcasting platform that provides CPAs with verified professional development through engaging conversations with business leaders. LumiQ has created a ‘master-class’ of professional development by marrying interesting content with a modern, mobile app experience. Guests on the platform include the CEO of Nike, founder of Blackberry, inventor of Amazon Alexa, the CFOs of Google, Yelp, Yahoo!, Shopify, and more.

Prior to founding LumiQ, Michael began his entrepreneurial career as the CFO/COO of wearable technology startup GestureLogic. Michael graduated from the Richard Ivey School of Business and began his career in audit at Ernst and Young, earning his CPA designation, before moving into risk management consulting at Protiviti. Michael also completed an MA in International Affairs specializing in counter-terrorism, while working at Scotiabank in that capacity.  
 

As Chief Marketing & Ecosystem Officer, Allison is responsible for driving finance-led transformation and elevating the strategic office of finance through the combined power of Vena’s product, partners and community.

Allison is passionate about building and leading high-performance marketing teams that drive brand, demand and experience. She began her career as an entrepreneur and built her own experiential marketing agency, providing technology-based experience solutions for CPG and entertainment brands. She continued to apply her skills and experiences as she transitioned to senior marketing leadership roles working directly with tech providers, including Oracle Marketing Cloud, NexJ Systems and Piano Software. 

Bringing over 15 years of leadership experience to her role at Vena, 10 of them spent leading go-to-market teams for cloud-based technology and service providers, she is now expanding Vena’s marketing efforts to support company goals worldwide—all while working with Vena’s growing hybrid workforce and leading remote teams from her new country home just outside of Toronto. When not dreaming in marketing and tech, Allison loves to travel off the beaten path, swim in the ocean, cycle in the forest, listen to podcasts and play video games.

John has over 25 years of experience managing high-growth software companies, with a proven track record in assessing organizations' sales and marketing operations and implementing scalable processes that enable rapid revenue growth and attract investment. I have assisted companies such as Qohash, Security Compass, Intelex Technologies, Atrion International, and Environmental Software Associates.

As part of his commitment to give back to the community, John serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Raising the Village charity (Raisingthevillage.org).

Sulogna Roy is the Managing Director of SRED.io, a consulting company leveraging automation and AI technology to track, document and de-risk SR&ED submissions for their clients. SRED.io services businesses across a wide range of technologies including software, electronics, advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, and others.

Sulogna has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo and spent many years working in the R&D industry building and designing new pilot technology. She is a registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario.

Ross Rich is the CEO & Founder of Accord, YCombinator alum, and proud Canadian. Today, he's leading the Accord team in helping 100+ GTM teams (including Stripe, Figma, and Headspace) drive repeatable sales execution. Before Accord, Ross spent 4 years scaling Stripe’s sales team from 3 to 300+, and in a past life, he worked at Columbia Records with artists such as Calvin Harris, Snoop Dogg, and Pharrell.

Sonya Meloff is Co-Founder of Sales Talent Agency, North America's largest sales recruitment company.  Launched in 2007, Sales Talent Agency has worked with over 2,000 companies across North America, Europe and APAC to help them build elite go-top-market teams.  From single projects to full outsourcing solutions, some notable clients include Thomson Reuters, Salesforce, SAP, Dell, IBM, AMEX, Tyco, Waste Management, as well as many of the tech success stories heard in the news. The Company has employees across the globe and is a 6-time Profit 500 recipient for Fastest Growing Companies in Canada.  Prior to founding Sales Talent Agency, Sonya was the Director of Sales for Monster.com, the first global online HR recruitment website and has spent over 20 years selling human resource solutions. Sonya is passionate about advocating for the sales profession and also co-founded The Great Canadian Sales Competition, which was Canada’s biggest student competition dedicated to educating students about sales as a career, as well as Salesclass, the leading sales upskilling program in Israel. When not selling or skiing, Sonya is a busy mom to 3 children, aged 14, 13, and 11. 

Monish has been building machine learning (ML) and AI models before it was all the rage: 15+ years ago he built an AI system that could tell players how to win at pool. He has also built data-driven models for everything from airplane landing gears to harmful crowd behaviours to the Canadarm. 
For the past few years at Gradient Ascent, he's brought this passion, creativity, and years of experience building software products to help businesses apply the power of data and AI. His diverse AI project work examples include: optimizing investment and credit risk portfolios within Fintechs, improving safety at nuclear plants, helping hospitals fight Covid, and dozens of new ML/AI products within venture/PE-backed and publicly-listed technology businesses. 
He has a masters degree in Finance and Financial Law (University of London) and an undergraduate degree in Systems Design Engineering (with Dean’s Honours) from the University of Waterloo. In his free time, he loves to read, cook, and play tennis.

Nabeil Alazzam is Founder and CEO of Forma.ai. He studied at Queen’s University and then after graduation joined ZS as a consultant. During his time there, Nabeil advised Fortune 100 companies on sales force effectiveness and strategy and saw first-hand the pain of poor enterprise sales compensation management. His experiences with designing, implementing, and optimizing sales comp plans for some of the world's leading businesses led him to found Forma.ai in 2016.

Elan Pratzer is the Founder of System-3. Founded in 2021, System-3 is a predictive, unbiased SaaS based leadership solution that minimizes bias and objectively measures whether emerging and experienced leaders, deploy the core leadership competencies required for success in today’s complex business environment, when under executive pressure.
Elan is an entrepreneur having successfully founded four companies and has spent 30 years
assessing and advising business leadership at the most senior levels of corporations. Elan has acted as an advisor to Shareholders, Boards and CEOs on matters related most often to strategic human capital decisions and organization transformation. He is the former Managing Partner, Canada of Caldwell Partners where he led selective executive search engagements hiring transformational C-suite and Board talent.

Prior to joining Caldwell, Elan was the founder and CEO of Executive Risk Group Ltd., a provider of risk management solutions for directors, officers and trustees. Elan sold Executive Risk in 2012 to a US-based re-insurer. He was previously the Managing Director of a private, Canadian-based merchant bank.
Elan’s executive search career began when he was 19 and included managing what became Egon Zehnder’s Toronto office. He built his own firm (Pratzer & Partners) that, through organic growth and acquisition, included offices in Toronto, Chicago and New York. He ultimately sold his firm to Korn/Ferry in 2000, wherein he became Managing Director, Canada responsible for integrating and developing offices in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.
Elan earned a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University and a Bachelor of Laws from the
University of Toronto. He is a former member of YPO and serves on the Board of Directors of
Cambridge Brain Sciences and is on the Advisory Board of Hold it All Inc. of which he is the former Chairman. Elan has served as a board member for other private and public companies and philanthropic entities.

Jeff is an entrepreneur, founder of multiple companies, real estate investor, and best-selling author. Jeff sold a majority share of his company in 2017 to private equity and now runs a small private equity shop that invests in online digital assets, manages his apartment buildings and investments, and spends time on the boards of both profit and not-for-profit companies.  In his spare time, Jeff enjoys traveling with his family and friends, spending time at the cottage, and exercising.

Carlos Matias is the Founder of PropTech Solutions Inc., the holding company of leading global real estate technology companies, GryphTech Inc. and Phoenix Software Inc. With 25+ years serving real estate businesses in over 60 countries, Carlos has earned a reputation as a visionary leader and authority on global real estate. His unparalleled expertise in international real estate has earned the trust of the world’s largest real estate brands.

Carlos, a Computer Systems graduate, began his career with leadership positions at BMW Group Canada followed by Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan. Prior to starting his own companies, Carlos was the Vice President of IT of the European-based company, Immoeuro B.V., where he oversaw all facets of the company’s software platform and IT operations. He was acknowledged as a 2020, 2021 and 2022 RISMedia Newsmaker.

Carlos is frequently solicited for his advice and insight by industry leaders with whom he has long-standing relationships. Together, they make and influence decisions which shape the industry. Having traveled to over 50 countries, Carlos has spoken at countless industry events to inspire others and is an active participant in global industry and customer events. Carlos is fluent in English and Portuguese and divides his time between homes in Toronto, Canada and Lisbon, Portugal.

Kristin Smith holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University. She is also a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA), Chartered Business Valuator (CBV) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Prior to joining Novacap, Ms. Smith was a Director at KPMG Corporate Finance in Denver, Colorado. At KPMG, Ms. Smith provided M&A advisory services and was responsible for the day-to-day execution of sell-side, buy-side, equity financing and debt financing transactions with a focus on Communication’s Technology. Prior to KPMG, Ms. Smith worked in investment banking at Green, Manning, and Bunch and Bank of Montreal. She also worked with KPMG in Toronto, in both their Corporate Finance and Audit groups.

Ms. Smith currently sits on the Boards of Directors for Plusgrade and Accurate Group and serves as an observer on the Board of Directors of Octasic.

As Chief Executive Officer of Uzado Inc., Sean Sullivan brings his passion for building business
outcomes in the tech industry that translates into increased revenues with mitigated risks to a diverse market space. With over 20 years of leadership experience, Sean is an expert at building and managing critical networks that enable all stakeholders to achieve their goals. He began his career in technology sales with industry leaders such as IBM and Oracle and acted as a business
transformation consultant for over 15 years in parallel. Through one of these engagements, he
identified the Uzado acquisition opportunity where he pulled the company from financial hardship to year-over-year growth and profitability.
Sean has a keen eye for identifying and capitalizing on niche market opportunities, keeping his
momentum forward through many global economic headwinds. Exuding a dynamic, effective and
influential leadership style that motivates his teams, Sean has successfully led the diversification and growth initiatives of several technology services organizations. This has included foreseeing industry demands, aligning service portfolios and building performance growth and operational teams.

Currently residing in Uxbridge Ontario with his five-year-old daughter Danika, Sean is a
contributing member of the local community. He has a passion for most power sports and downhill skiing. He also enjoys spending time in the summer on the water in cottage country.

Born in Jerusalem (June 1967) and raised in Toronto.  Joel was largely truant from high school, until Joel found employment working after school from 4-10pm.  He went to McGill (BA) and U of T (MA) to study history 1987-1992.  After deciding not to pursue an academic career, Joel got a job selling women's underwear (Playtex)  to retailers.  From there Joel went to work for an entrepreneur "grey marketing" Apple computers and peripherals until the company was sold in 1995.   Joel then bounced around various jobs and endeavours (screenwriting, tree-planting, semiconductors) before launching a software startup in 1999, which failed by early 2001.  Joel stayed in the software business working as salesperson and sales manager.   Joel co-founded  Firmex in late 2005. Firmex delivered double digit growth, profitability and investors returns for 14 years. After raising angel capital in 2007-2010 he sold the business in 2016, 2019 (both leveraged PE buyouts) & in 2021 to a strategic buyer.  Joel is currently focused on helping other entrepreneurs via board roles and consulting work.  He lives in Toronto, with his wife and daughter, dog and cat.

Chris founded Doxim in 2000 with a vision to develop and deliver software that helps customers automate and digitize processes that enhance customer engagement. Through the last two decades he has lived through the ground zero of transformational change in business communications, information management, and document automation. Chris is a charismatic and approachable leader, and under his careful guidance Doxim has grown to become a leading supplier of SaaS customer engagement software to the North American Financial Services marketplace. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Administrative and Commercial Studies from Western University. Outside of work, Chris loves to spend time at his cottage in Muskoka with family and friends.

Ed Bryant is the President and CEO of Sampford Advisors.  Ed has over 27 years of experience including over 16 years in Investment Banking with Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, Singapore and New York. In that time, Ed raised in excess of $20 billion in equity and debt capital and completed over $10 billion in M&A transactions. Prior to founding Sampford, Ed held the CFO and VP of Corporate Development positions for three years at Conversant. Ed holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Studies from Sheffield University in England.

Karim Antonious is a seasoned banking professional with over 15 years of experience in the industry. He has developed a reputation for his ability to help innovative companies secure creative non-dilutive capital.

In 2020, Karim joined Royant Capital as the Managing Director of Origination and played an instrumental role in launching the Technology and Innovation Banking (TIB) practice. He was involved in every aspect of the business, from developing the hiring process to formulating credit appetite and establishing procedures around client management. Karim's goal is to position Royant Capital as the partner of choice for technology and innovative companies in Canada.

Karim holds a business degree from York University and soon after his graduation, he attained his CMA designation. In his spare time, Karim enjoys tackling small renovation projects and  is crazy about his Crossfit routines. He also relishes riding his motorcycle during the summer months.

With his extensive experience, dedication to innovation and passion for creative non-dilutive capital, Karim Antonious is a valuable asset to the Royant Capital team and an invaluable resource for any company seeking to secure funding in the Canadian market.