2023 CEO Summit Keynoters

Join fellow summiteers for cocktails and snacks at a CEO Welcome Reception, located near the Drawing Room. 

Get ready to hit the town and attend one of ten private CEO Dinner Club events with an intimate group of your peers from across the country at Ottawa's finest restaurants. Check your name tag or ask as CCI Team Member for more information about which dinner you are attending.

Start the day right with a nourishing CEO Networking Breakfast with fellow CEOs from across Canada. 

CCI President Benjamin Bergen will kick off the day with an exciting welcome and the opportunity for you to share with everyone in the room a recent win for your company.

Get ready to receive a special update from Jim Balsillie, Chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators and retired Chairman and co-CEO of BlackBerry, on the current state of Canada’s innovation economy in a global context.

Then David Rozin, Vice President and Head,Technology and Innovation Banking (Growth Capital) at Roynat Capital, will facilitate an interactive Q&A between Jim and our curated audience of CEOs. 

This year’s CEO Summit features some of Canada’s most insightful and experienced business leaders, here to provide practical advice to all attendees to help their businesses scale-up globally.

Like Patrick Spence, the BlackBerry veteran who took on Google and won. When he assumed the leadership of Sonos, he devised a strategy to safeguard the speaker maker's intellectual property, leading to a significant legal victory that serves as a lesson for every innovator looking to expand their freedom-to-operate globally.

In conversation with Natalie Raffoul, Managing Partner of Brion Raffoul LLP, hear from this London, Ontario native about his remarkable journey through Canadian tech to the highest position within one of the world's most cherished brands. Along the way, Patrick will share advice on board governance, IP strategies, fighting the good fight, and leading management teams with conviction.

We're going to host a different kind of conversation about merging and acquiring companies. As a group of Canadian business leaders, let's unpack how the Magnet Forensics deal unfolded, and how Questrade's 8 acquisitions in 4 years have played out. In conversation first with Jenna Zuschlag-Misener, COO of The Logic, and then with the Summit audience, hear from Adam Belsher, CEO of Magnet Forensics, Carol Leaman, CEO of Axonify and Member of the Board of Magnet Forensics, and Romit Malhotra, Chief Strategy Officer of Questrade.

CCI President Benjamin Bergen chats with CPA Ontario's CEO Carol Wilding about the CEO Summit so far, and CPA Ontario's new Innovation Leadership Accelerator Program. 

A live and interactive conversation with some of Canada's top AI commercializers about what business leaders should know about safely implementing AI into their business workflows, facilitated by Michael Tang, Managing Partner of the Technology, Media and Entertainment & Telecom (TMT) Practice, Deloitte Canada & Chile. Hear special insights from and ask questions directly to Nicole Janssen, co-CEO of AltaML, Humera Malik, CEO of Canvass AI, and Niraj Bhargava, CEO of NuEnergy.AI. 

Join us for an engaging discussion with prominent figures in Canadian business, all with their finger on the pulse of capital raising in 2023. Discover what works, what doesn't, and how CEOs can learn from each other in uncertain economic times. Moderated by Charles Kerecz, Managing Director and Head of Equity Private Placements at Scotiabank, our panel includes Michael Garrity, CEO of FinanceIt, Alison Sunstrum, CEO of CNSRV-X, and Daniel Barankin, CEO of 6ix.

Discover the behind-the-scenes stories of these Canadian business icons who have navigated the intricacies of CEO successions firsthand. Gain valuable advice on planning your own path as a CEO and ensuring a smooth transition to set your successors up for success. This live and interactive session is moderated by Patrick Searle, VP at CCI, and features JP Chauvet, CEO of Lightspeed, Allen Lau, former CEO of Wattpad, and Ian Rae, CEO of Aptum. 

Afternoon reflections from CCI President Benjamin Bergen.

At 5:00PM, we open the closed-doors of the event, and welcome in elected officials and senior government civil servants for the CEO Summit's Parliamentary Reception. Catch up with the political and policy leaders in Ottawa holding the pen on Canada's innovation agenda.

Then at 7:00PM, we will all gather for the CEO Summit Dinner, an opportunity to reflect on the conversations of the day and experience a special discussion moderated by CCI's co-founder John Ruffolo. At the pace we're going, we'll all retire to the hotel lobby bar at the end of for a final toast.