
Bell Business Empower Series
Re-imagine your digital transformation journey
Watch our four part event series designed to inspire and equip you with the insights you need to confidently and securely accelerate business growth.


Connecting an intelligent and digital workforce.


Beyond zero trust: Rethinking your security.


Investing in autonomous operations the right way.


Accelerate your digital resiliency with a cloud-centric business model.
Connecting an intelligent and digital workforce.
September 15, 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET
Hear from Giovanni Sansalone, Vice President, Product & Professional Services, Bell Business Markets, Evan Hardie, Research Director, Future of Work, IDC, and some of our most distinguished technology partners as we uncover:
- The latest trends and insights to help you accelerate your digital resiliency
- Key considerations for building a digital enterprise that empowers your workers
- Industry leading solutions that offer flexible connectivity and collaboration capabilities to connect your hybrid workforce

Giovanni Sansalone, Vice President, Product & Professional Services, Bell Business Markets
Giovanni Sansalone is Vice President of Product & Professional Services at Bell Business Markets, Canada’s #1 provider of IP broadband, information and communications technology (ICT) services to Canadian businesses. He is responsible for the Business Markets’ Product portfolio, including Network, Unified Communications, Security, Cloud and IoT a across large, mid sized and government segments.
Giovanni has launched a number of innovative products and services across networking, managed services and security, including unique Cyber Threat Intelligence services leveraging the Bell Network. Giovanni holds a Bachelor of Computer Engineering from the University of Montréal, Canada.

Evan Hardie, Research Director, Future of Work, IDC
As Research Director within IDC Canada's Future of Work, Evan works closely with technology vendors and their channel partners. He conducts primary research, forecasting, trend analysis, business planning, channel strategy analysis, market segmentation and competitive strategy analysis; ultimately, providing insights on how technology is changing the way Canadian organizations are working and delivering value to their customers.
Evan's commentary is frequently found in Canadian IT publications, as his market specializations include future of work, inkjet, laser, large format and 3D printer markets in Canada.

Alizabeth Calder, Research Adjunct Advisor, IDC
Alizabeth Calder, an adjunct analyst with IDC's IT Executive Programs (IEP), is the former CIO of HomeEquity Bank, a contributing writer to IT World Canada, and a best-selling author and sought-after keynote speaker. She focuses on bridging the gap between the technology sector and the leaders who provide the governance and investment needed to succeed.
Prior to her current role, Alizabeth has been the CIO at firms including IBM, Loyalty Group (a Division of Alliance Data) and CML Healthcare. Her more than 35-year technology career includes transformational success in banking, financial services, transportation, logistics, healthcare, analytics and professional services. Alizabeth is a recognized thought leader on digital oversight and Board engagement, including strategies to close the value gap and deliver the right level of digital maturity to have a long-term impact. Alizabeth has also been an expert in cybersecurity since the 1980s, providing a unique bridge for Directors and C-Level executives on one of their most critical risk considerations.

Amber Mac,Innovation Speaker, Co-host of Marketing Disrupted and The AI Effect
Considered by many to be the go-to expert on anything to do with technology, Amber Mac helps companies and audiences to stay ahead of the curve. She is an industry veteran, renowned as a journalist, moderator, entrepreneur, consultant, and bestselling author. Whatever the setting, Mac offers clarity of understanding and a passion for digital innovation in all forms.
Mac started her career in San Francisco and Boston during the dot-com boom, with several roles including as a strategist for Razorfish. Since then, she has keynoted at more than 400 events around the world and has moderated sessions with everyone from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to former FBI Director James Comey to famed astronaut Chris Hadfield. She’s currently the co-host of two podcast series: Marketing Disrupted and the award-winning The AI Effect.
In 2010, Mac wrote the national bestselling business book Power Friending, followed by the Amazon bestseller, Outsmarting Your Kids Online, which she co-wrote in 2016. She is also a regular business host and expert for Fast Company, Newsweek, CNN, Bloomberg, CBS, BNN, CTV, The Marilyn Denis Show, and SiriusXM. In 2018, she was named one of DMZ’s 30 inspirational women making a difference in tech, and she is recognized internationally as an innovation and technology leader.

Amit Bhaga, Country Leader, Dell
Amit Bhaga is the Canada Country Leader for Dell Technologies Client Solutions Group. Amit has responsibilities for driving technology experience strategies focused on your workforce and customers. Throughout his 15-year tenure with Dell Technologies, Amit has evangelized the importance of delivering an unmatched customer experience through digital transformation. He believes employee IT experience is the key to unlocking more innovation and untapped potential from your end-users. Amit is also a board member on Dell Technologies Sales Advisory and Client Innovation Advisory Councils.
Amit holds a Honours Bachelors of Science from the University of Toronto, specializing in Human Health and Disease. He currently lives in Toronto Ontario with his wife and son.

Aruna Ravichandran, Chief Marketing Officer, Cisco Webex
Aruna Ravichandran is recognized as a visionary in both technology and marketing industries – marrying her deep engineering background, with customer-obsessed strategies, and a business-outcome mantra that is based on equal parts: purposeful storytelling and data science.
She has authored two ground-breaking books on DevOps, is a contributor for Forbes.com, and is a sought-after keynote speaker on the conference circuit. She is a multi-award honoree, including: Top 100 Most Influential Women in Silicon Valley 2016, National Diversity Council’s 2016 Most Powerful and Influential Woman Award, and Silver Stevie Award for Female Executive of the Year 2018.

Matthew Hyson, Technical Director, Aruba
Matthew Hyson joined Aruba in March of 2004 as Technical Director, responsible for systems engineering activities and technical business development within Canada. Since joining Aruba, Matthew has been responsible for architecting some of the largest secure mobility networks ever deployed.
Matthew currently serves in Office of the CTO focusing on next generation mobility architecture, security, and the Internet of Things. Drawing on over a decade of real world architecting and implementation experience, Matthew brings a unique ‘field-focused’ view to long term strategic planning initiatives.
Prior to joining Aruba Networks, Matthew was the Director of Technology Development at systems integrator Wireless Friendly, a Canada-based start-up focused on wireless security solutions. Matthew’s expertise in the field of wireless network security has been featured in several national publications.

Mike Hilton, President, HPE Canada
As President of HPE Canada, Mike Hilton brings over 30 years of diverse experience in Software Development and Solutions, Cloud Computing, Telecommunications, CCTV and Access Control, Data Communications, Industrial Automation, Robotics and Business Consulting. The HPE Canada team consists of a dynamic group of sales, services and marketing professionals with solutions across on-premise, private cloud and public cloud involving storage, compute, networking, systems management, and services. As the leader in edge-to-cloud platform as a service, HPE Canada is always focused on helping customers and partners see the business value and impact of working with HPE.
Prior to HPE, Mike has extensive experience as both an entrepreneur and senior leader, working with teams in Business Operations, Sales, Marketing and Technical Services. Mike has co-founded or led numerous tech start-ups, all with successful exits, including the 2018 sale of Genesis Robotics to Koch Industries. Most recently, Mike spent 12 years with Microsoft, over two tours, leading Enterprise Sales, Partner Sales, Dynamics Business Applications and SMB in various roles.
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Beyond zero trust: Rethinking your security.
October 13, 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET
Taking your security to the next level requires not only a good architectural framework but enhanced operations to enable greater visibility, scale and efficient use of scarce resources.
In this episode, we discuss how you can future-proof your security by taking advantage of a zero trust architecture and advances in security operations. Hosted by Amber Mac, you will hear from Bell, IDC and our strategic partners and customers, as we explore how you can:
- Scale security operations to effectively handle a myriad of events and data
- Enhance security orchestration, automation and response capabilities
- Optimally direct scarce security resources
- Increase visibility and insight across all devices, data centres, containers and clouds

Amber Mac, Innovation Speaker, Co-host of Marketing Disrupted and The AI Effect
Considered by many to be the go-to expert on anything to do with technology, Amber Mac helps companies and audiences to stay ahead of the curve. She is an industry veteran, renowned as a journalist, moderator, entrepreneur, consultant, and bestselling author. Whatever the setting, Mac offers clarity of understanding and a passion for digital innovation in all forms.
Mac started her career in San Francisco and Boston during the dot-com boom, with several roles including as a strategist for Razorfish. Since then, she has keynoted at more than 400 events around the world and has moderated sessions with everyone from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to former FBI Director James Comey to famed astronaut Chris Hadfield. She is currently the co-host of two podcast series: Marketing Disrupted and the award-winning The AI Effect.
In 2010, Mac wrote the national bestselling business book Power Friending, followed by the Amazon bestseller, Outsmarting Your Kids Online, which she co-wrote in 2016. She is also a regular business host and expert for Fast Company, Newsweek, CNN, Bloomberg, CBS, BNN, CTV, The Marilyn Denis Show, and SiriusXM. In 2018, she was named one of DMZ’s 30 inspirational women making a difference in tech, and she is recognized internationally as an innovation and technology leader.

Alizabeth Calder, Research Adjunct Advisor, IDC
Alizabeth Calder, an adjunct analyst with IDC's IT Executive Programs (IEP), is the former CIO of HomeEquity Bank, a contributing writer to IT World Canada, and a best-selling author and sought-after keynote speaker. She focuses on bridging the gap between the technology sector and the leaders who provide the governance and investment needed to succeed.
Prior to her current role, Alizabeth has been the CIO at firms including IBM, Loyalty Group (a Division of Alliance Data) and CML Healthcare. Her more than 35-year technology career includes transformational success in banking, financial services, transportation, logistics, healthcare, analytics and professional services. Alizabeth is a recognized thought leader on digital oversight and Board engagement, including strategies to close the value gap and deliver the right level of digital maturity to have a long-term impact. Alizabeth has also been an expert in cybersecurity since the 1980s, providing a unique bridge for Directors and C-Level executives on one of their most critical risk considerations.

André A. Boucher, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), National Bank of Canada
André Boucher joined National Bank of Canada on May 10, 2021 as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). In this role, André is responsible for strengthening the information security program to ensure the protection of information assets and technology. He is responsible for supporting cybersecurity architectures and solutions that enable the Bank's growth. André also acts as an information security advisor to the executive team by recommending cybersecurity investments, practices, technical expertise and governance.
Prior to joining the Bank, André was the Associate Head of the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, an Assistant Deputy Minister position of the Communication Security Establishment. In that role he was responsible for the operational integration and transformation of the Government of Canada's cyber defence teams and security organizations into a unified national cyber security center. He joined the Communications Security Establishment following his retirement from the Royal Canadian Air Force. During his military career, Colonel (Ret'd) André Boucher served as a senior Air Force officer with extensive experience in command, secure technologies and direct support to cyber and air operations. He has led various operational and technical teams in Canada, NORAD and NATO as a communications and electronics engineering officer.
André has extensive experience in leadership, information technology, security and intelligence. He is a leader recognized in Canada and internationally for his expertise, but also for his excellent communication skills, his dedication to collaboration and for enabling success through high performing teams.
André holds a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science and a Master Degree in Computer Engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada. He also holds a Master of Defence Studies degree from the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College. He is also a fellow of the United States National Security Studies Program at Syracuse University.

David Senf, Senior Cybersecurity Strategist, Bell Canada
David Senf is Senior Cybersecurity Strategist at Bell Canada. He leads the strategic direction of the Bell Business Markets security portfolio to address new challenges in cloud, IoT and 5G. Additionally, he helps security executives navigate the complex world of cybersecurity. Previously he has 20 years experience as a senior leader at a top analyst firm quantifying cybersecurity trendlines, assessing vendor solutions and benchmarking organizations’ capabilities. David is active in the security community organizing events and is a frequent speaker.

Greg Davison, AVP & GM, FireEye Mandiant
Greg currently leads the FireEye Mandiant Canada and Americas Inside Named Accounts Teams, assisting organizations prepare for and respond to cyber threats. Over the last 25 years Greg developed his leadership and consulting expertise at global companies including Xerox, IBM, Dell and VMware. He is focused on building strong teams and helping organizations defend against the most advanced cyber adversaries. Greg holds a Finance and Economics degree from Western University.

John McClurg, Sr. Vice President and CISO, BlackBerry
John McClurg serves as Sr. Vice President and CISO at BlackBerry. McClurg engages the industry around the globe on the risk challenges today and how BlackBerry uniquely mitigates them with the application of machine learning and other AI supported solutions. He champions a move from a historically reactive security posture, to one focused on proactively predicting and mitigating future risks.
Before BlackBerry, McClurg served as the Ambassador-At-Large of Cylance and as Dell's CSO, where his responsibilities included the strategic focus and tactical operations of Dell’s internal global security service. He was also charged with the advocacy of business resilience and security prowess, the seamless integration of Dell’s security offerings, and with improving the effectiveness and efficiency of security initiatives.
Before Dell, McClurg served as the VP of Global Security at Honeywell International; Lucent/Bell Laboratories; and in the U.S. Intel Community, as a twice-decorated member of the FBI, where he held an assignment with the U.S. Dept of Energy (DOE) as a Branch Chief charged with establishing a Cyber-Counterintelligence program within the DOE’s newly created Office of Counterintelligence.
Prior to that, McClurg served as an FBI Supervisory Special Agent, assisting in the establishment of the FBI’s new Computer Investigations and Infrastructure Threat Assessment Center, or what is today known as the National Infrastructure Protection Center within the Dept of Homeland Security.
McClurg also served on assignment as a Deputy Branch Chief with the CIA, helping to establish the new Counterespionage Group, and was responsible for the management of complex counterespionage investigations. He additionally served as a Special Agent for the FBI in the Los Angeles Field Office, where he implemented plans to protect critical U.S. technologies targeted for unlawful acquisition by foreign powers and served on one of the nation’s first Joint Terrorism Task Forces.

Jonathan Nguyen-Duy, Vice President, Field CISO Strategic Services, Fortinet
Jonathan Nguyen-Duy is the Field CISO for Strategic Services at Fortinet, where he focuses on advising carriers, service providers and systems integrators on cybersecurity, risk management and digital transformation.
Prior to joining Fortinet, Jonathan spent 16 years at Verizon Business as the Security CTO, responsible for annual Data Breach Investigations Report and the managed security services business unit.
He served with the U.S. Foreign Service in Central America and has more than 20 years of cybersecurity and business continuity experience.

Paul Kaspian, Principal Product Marketing Manager, Palo Alto Networks
Paul Kaspian is a Principal Product Marketing Manager for Palo Alto Networks, specializing in Zero Trust and how this modern security methodology can help organizations secure their digital transformation.
Paul brings close to 20 years of experience in product management and product marketing where prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, he held strategic positions at Aruba Networks, IBM Security, Watchfire, and Checkpoint Software Technologies.
Since joining Palo Alto Networks, Paul has worked extensively with customers, sales teams and internal research and development teams to educate the market on the latest emerging threats, their potential impact to organizations, and ways of significantly reducing risk through a Zero Trust approach to security.
Paul has contributed numerous articles and presented on a wide range of information security related topics including Zero Trust and SASE security models, as well as topics spanning network, application, data and IoT security.
Paul holds a degree in economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Tony Lauro, Director, Security Strategy, Akamai Technologies
Tony is currently Director of Security Strategy for Akamai Technologies. He's been involved with Information Security since the late 90's when he worked for a large US based telecom provider. Since then Tony has worked with Akamai’s top global clients to provide cyber security guidance, architectural analysis, web application and network security expertise. With over 20 years of Information Security operations experience Tony has worked and consulted in many verticals including finance, automotive, medical/healthcare, enterprise, and mobile applications. He is currently responsible for Akamai’s North / Central / South American clients advising in the areas of adversarial resiliency, security architecture, and cyber security strategy. Tony’s previous responsibilities include consulting with public sector/government clients at Akamai, managing security operations and pen testing for a mobile payments company, and overseeing security and compliance responsibilities for a global financial software services organization.

Yogesh Shivhare, Senior Analyst, Security and Infrastructure, IDC
Yogesh Shivhare is a senior analyst at IDC Canada within the Infrastructure Solutions and Security research team. He manages the Cybersecurity research and provides insight and analysis into industry and technology trends as they shape the Canadian Security market. He is also responsible for market sizing and forecasting the Security Appliance hardware market. His research focus enables him to support Canadian technology providers by identifying key market trends in the Cybersecurity space where end user demand and preferences are changing rapidly.
Prior to leading Security research in IDC Canada, Yogesh has led market research in IDC for various enterprise infrastructure technology markets in Canada and Asia Pacific.
Yogesh holds an MBA degree from SCMHRD, Pune, India and a bachelors in technology from NITK, Surathkal, India.
Investing in autonomous operations the right way.
November 10, 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET
Next-generation technologies like 5G, multi-access edge computing (MEC), AI, cloud and IoT are rapidly transforming the world as we know it, and businesses need to prepare for the future now.
In this episode, Amber Mac, IDC, Bell and some of our strategic partners explore how you can:
- Maximize productivity, reduce costs, and enhance customer loyalty by building next-generation technologies into your business operations.
- Take advantage of 5G MEC to enable emerging business applications that require ultra-low latency connectivity, machine learning and analytics.
- Drive collaboration, empower employees, increase work output, and improve health and safety with business devices that automate remote operations and power extended reality workflows.

Amber Mac, Innovation Speaker, Co-host of Marketing Disrupted and The AI Effect
Considered by many to be the go-to expert on anything to do with technology, Amber Mac helps companies and audiences to stay ahead of the curve. She is an industry veteran, renowned as a journalist, moderator, entrepreneur, consultant, and bestselling author. Whatever the setting, Mac offers clarity of understanding and a passion for digital innovation in all forms.
Mac started her career in San Francisco and Boston during the dot-com boom, with several roles including as a strategist for Razorfish. Since then, she has keynoted at more than 400 events around the world and has moderated sessions with everyone from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to former FBI Director James Comey to famed astronaut Chris Hadfield. She is currently the co-host of two podcast series: Marketing Disrupted and the award-winning The AI Effect.
In 2010, Mac wrote the national bestselling business book Power Friending, followed by the Amazon bestseller, Outsmarting Your Kids Online, which she co-wrote in 2016. She is also a regular business host and expert for Fast Company, Newsweek, CNN, Bloomberg, CBS, BNN, CTV, The Marilyn Denis Show, and SiriusXM. In 2018, she was named one of DMZ’s 30 inspirational women making a difference in tech, and she is recognized internationally as an innovation and technology leader.

Alizabeth Calder, Research Adjunct Advisor, IDC
Alizabeth Calder, an adjunct analyst with IDC's IT Executive Programs (IEP), is the former CIO of HomeEquity Bank, a contributing writer to IT World Canada, and a best-selling author and sought-after keynote speaker. She focuses on bridging the gap between the technology sector and the leaders who provide the governance and investment needed to succeed.
Prior to her current role, Alizabeth has been the CIO at firms including IBM, Loyalty Group (a Division of Alliance Data) and CML Healthcare. Her more than 35-year technology career includes transformational success in banking, financial services, transportation, logistics, healthcare, analytics and professional services. Alizabeth is a recognized thought leader on digital oversight and Board engagement, including strategies to close the value gap and deliver the right level of digital maturity to have a long-term impact. Alizabeth has also been an expert in cybersecurity since the 1980s, providing a unique bridge for Directors and C-Level executives on one of their most critical risk considerations.

Bala Thekkedath, Head of Product Marketing, AWS Wavelength and 5G Edge Computing, AWS
Bala Thekkedath leads Product Marketing for AWS Wavelength and 5G Edge Computing at Amazon Web Services. Bala brings over 28 years of experience in the telecom and networking industry, and a breadth of experience that spans product marketing, product management, pre/post sales consulting and engineering roles. He has previously worked at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Ericsson, and Nokia (Lucent). Bala holds MBA and MS degrees in Telecommunications Management from Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from MS University of Baroda, India.

Christian Gilby, Sr. Director of Product Marketing, AI-Driven Enterprise, Juniper
Christian has 20+ years of product marketing, management and engineering experience in the networking industry, with a strong focus on mobility, AI, cloud and wireless and speaks often at industry events globally. He currently leads product marketing for the AI-Driven Enterprise portfolio, having joined Juniper through the acquisition of Mist. Previously he led product marketing for wired, wireless and branch solutions at Aruba (acquired by HPE). He led product marketing and product management for Agito Networks (acquired by ShoreTel). Prior to Agito, he was an early member of the Meru Networks (FTNT) team leading product management and partnerships in VoWLAN and Wi-Fi solutions. Christian started his career at Nortel Networks where he held several networking and VoIP project lead and software architect positions and was also granted a patent.

Gary Semplonius, Senior Vice President, Sales, Bell Business Markets
Gary Semplonius, Senior Vice President, Sales, leads the sales organization supporting Bell’s Commercial and Enterprise business customers. In this role, he is responsible for top and bottom line wireline and wireless financial and operating results for Bell’s largest business clients. Gary and his team deliver a broad portfolio of solutions, including Voice & Unified Communications, Networking, Cloud, Security, Internet of Things, and Public Safety solutions.
Prior to his current role, Gary was Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing at Bell Mobility. He has also held various executive roles at Bell with the National Retail and Wholesale teams.
Prior to joining Bell in 2002, Gary held sales and marketing positions at Sungard, IBM and Allstream with a focus on business continuity, web services and networking infrastructure solutions.
Born and raised in Southern Ontario, Gary attended Wilfrid Laurier University, where he obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours) degree. He has also participated in various executive programs at the Wharton School of Business and Columbia Business School.
Gary is a past Chair of Transitions for Youth in Burlington, and has been a coach with the Oakville Thunder Volleyball Club for the past 10 years. Gary lives in Oakville, Ontario, with his wife and two children.

Ignacio Tartavull, CEO, Tiny Mile
Ignacio Tartavull is the founder and CEO of Tiny Mile, a company working on fundamentally decreasing the cost of transportation. Established in 2019, Tiny Mile offers affordable delivery services to small businesses in Toronto through its fleet of remotely piloted delivery robots, which are named “Geoffrey” after AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton.
Previously, Ignacio was an Autonomy Researcher at Uber Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) and he conducted neuroscience research at Sebastian Seung's lab at Princeton University.
Ignacio holds both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the National University of Rosario in Argentina.

Jim Poole, Vice President of Business Development, Equinix
Jim Poole is Vice President of Global Business Development at Equinix, leading Evolving Edge strategies focused on 5G, private wireless, MEC, subsea cable and SATCOMs. He has a 30+ year background spanning the IT, telecommunications, and content technologies industries. Jim joined Equinix from Roundbox, Inc., a provider of mobile broadcast software, where he led business development and sales. Prior to Roundbox, he was Vice President and General Manager of Network Services at SAVVIS (now Lumen), responsible for business line P&L, product management, marketing, and strategy. He also held senior leadership positions at C&W Americas, dynamicsoft and UUNET.

Nigel Wallis, Research Vice President, IoT and Industries, IDC
As Research Vice President, IoT and Industries, IDC, Nigel directs the Internet of Things (IoT) research program. He also leads IDC’s Canada: Future of Industry Ecosystems research into how different industries are adopting technology.
He delivers research covering these markets with a particular focus on demand-side preferences, technology deployment plans, business priorities and Canadian-specific forecasting.
Nigel speaks frequently at industry events and vendor events in Canada on the topic of IoT and Industry Transformation.

Rob Tiffany, Vice President and Head of IoT Strategy, Ericsson
Rob Tiffany is Vice President and Head of IoT Strategy at Ericsson where he drives strategy and execution at the intersection of 5G, Edge computing and the Internet of Things.
He joined Ericsson in 2018 from Enterprise IoT, where he was Founder and CEO. There he created an Edge computing system powered by Digital Twins that targeted enterprises and industrials. As CTO and Global Product Manager at Hitachi, he received the Presidential “Product of the Year” award for designing the Lumada Industrial IoT platform that landed in Gartner’s “Leaders Quadrant.” Spending most of his career at Microsoft, Rob was the Global Technology Lead for IoT where he incubated the Azure IoT cloud platform and co-authored its reference architecture. Prior to Microsoft, Rob was the Co-Founder of NetPerceptor where he developed one of the industry’s earliest Mobile Device Management (MDM/EMM) platforms for smartphones.
Accelerate your digital resiliency with a cloud-centric business model.
November 30, 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET
Being digitally resilient is about using the right tools and systems to quickly recover from or adjust to business disruptions. To achieve this, businesses must enable next-generation services and innovation by accelerating their network and cloud transformation.
In this episode, Amber Mac, IDC, Bell and several of our distinguished technology partners discuss how you can:
- Enable a digitally resilient infrastructure to deliver innovative experiences for your customers
- Evolve to a cloud-centric network infrastructure as a foundation for digital transformation
- Accelerate your cloud journey to drive business agility, flexibility and foster innovation at scale

Amber Mac, Innovation Speaker, Co-host of Marketing Disrupted and The AI Effect
Considered by many to be the go-to expert on anything to do with technology, Amber Mac helps companies and audiences to stay ahead of the curve. She is an industry veteran, renowned as a journalist, moderator, entrepreneur, consultant, and bestselling author. Whatever the setting, Mac offers clarity of understanding and a passion for digital innovation in all forms.
Mac started her career in San Francisco and Boston during the dot-com boom, with several roles including as a strategist for Razorfish. Since then, she has keynoted at more than 400 events around the world and has moderated sessions with everyone from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to former FBI Director James Comey to famed astronaut Chris Hadfield. She is currently the co-host of two podcast series: Marketing Disrupted and the award-winning The AI Effect.
In 2010, Mac wrote the national bestselling business book Power Friending, followed by the Amazon bestseller, Outsmarting Your Kids Online, which she co-wrote in 2016. She is also a regular business host and expert for Fast Company, Newsweek, CNN, Bloomberg, CBS, BNN, CTV, The Marilyn Denis Show, and SiriusXM. In 2018, she was named one of DMZ’s 30 inspirational women making a difference in tech, and she is recognized internationally as an innovation and technology leader.

Alizabeth Calder, Research Adjunct Advisor, IDC
Alizabeth Calder, an adjunct analyst with IDC's IT Executive Programs (IEP), is the former CIO of HomeEquity Bank, a contributing writer to IT World Canada, and a best-selling author and sought-after keynote speaker. She focuses on bridging the gap between the technology sector and the leaders who provide the governance and investment needed to succeed.
Prior to her current role, Alizabeth has been the CIO at firms including IBM, Loyalty Group (a Division of Alliance Data) and CML Healthcare. Her more than 35-year technology career includes transformational success in banking, financial services, transportation, logistics, healthcare, analytics and professional services. Alizabeth is a recognized thought leader on digital oversight and Board engagement, including strategies to close the value gap and deliver the right level of digital maturity to have a long-term impact. Alizabeth has also been an expert in cybersecurity since the 1980s, providing a unique bridge for Directors and C-Level executives on one of their most critical risk considerations.

Anju Virmani, M.BA, C.Dir, Former CIO and current Technology Advisor, Cargojet Airways Inc., Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Awards recipient
Anju Virmani has led an exemplary career in a technology leadership role at Cargojet Inc leading its digital transformation establishing Cargojet as a leader in the Air Cargo industry. Anju is strong advocate for Women in STEM, ESG and D & I.
Ms Virmani currently serves on the boards of Ontario Power Generation and Ontario Health providing technology risk oversight. In the past, Ms. Virmani served on the Advisory Council for National Security and the Cross Cultural Roundtable on National Security.

Betty Rhiger, Chief Technology Officer, Global Partner Solutions, Microsoft Canada
Betty has spent over 25 years in and around technology. She has been a developer, done support, been an account exec, worked in strategic sales, and worked as a consultant. She loves helping partners and clients transform to achieve their objectives in constantly changing environment. She strongly believes in Microsoft’s mission to “Empower people and organizations to achieve more”. Her role as CTO for Global Partner Solutions at Microsoft Canada allows her to contribute to that mission alongside our partner ecosystem. Partners make more possible.

Eric Knipp, Vice President, Americas Systems Engineering, Cisco
Eric Knipp is the Vice President of Systems Engineering for the Americas Theatre. In this role, he leads the largest systems engineering team within Cisco and works closely with Sales leadership to develop Cisco’s technology go-to-market and ensure customer satisfaction. Eric also partners with Cisco’s Engineering and Customer Experience (CX) organizations to bring new solutions and offers to market. In addition, he is responsible for leading Cisco’s Architectural Specialist and Innovation Engineering teams in the Americas.
Throughout his 18-year tenure with Cisco, Eric has held numerous positions focused on engineering and architectural development. He is passionate about evolving the networking industry and his team through innovation by unlocking the value of programmability and integrating the network into the modern application development and DevOps frameworks. Prior to his current role, Eric served as the Senior Systems Engineering Director for the Americas Service Provider Segment.
Before to joining Cisco, Eric held several industry roles with companies such as AT&T and Nortel, where he focused on providing advanced architectural guidance to senior IT leadership in the areas of network architecture, global telephony design, and security.
Eric earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Indiana University and holds a Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert (CCIE) certification. He has served as a contributing author to publications focused on network design, security, and unified communications and has been formally recognized as a distinguished speaker at industry events.

Jason Bremner, Research Vice President, Industry and Business Solutions, IDC
Jason Bremner is the Research Vice President of the Industry and Business Solutions analyst team at IDC Canada. His team researches the application software and business services markets in Canada, with specific focus on how different industries are investing in cloud, analytics, mobility and social technologies to accelerate digital transformation.
The analyst team that Mr. Bremner leads help technology vendors, IT professionals and business executives make insight-driven, strategic decisions on technology marketing, sales and deployments. He has worked with many leading technology vendors as a consultant and employee.
Mr. Bremner is also the lead analyst for the Canadian Managed Cloud Services program, providing research insights and thought leadership on the key issues and trends affecting the outsourcing markets. Primary focus areas include outsourcing contract analysis and vendor positioning in the areas of infrastructure outsourcing.
Based in Canada, Jason and his team are responsible for IDC's agriculture sector research globally. The research looks at how the agriculture industry is adopting digital technologies in their business operations.
Mr. Bremner has an MBA from Queen's University and a BBA from Simon Fraser University.

Jeremy Wubs, Senior Vice President, Product, Marketing and Professional Services for Bell Business Markets, Bell Canada
Jeremy is responsible for product management, marketing, and pricing for mid and large markets nationally. He has over 20 years experience spanning technology provider and telecom service provider.
He chairs the Bell Customer Advisory Board, engaging with strategic enterprise clients, consulting on roadmap evolution, and advising on technology innovation.
Jeremy holds a Bachelor of Systems & Computer Engineering and Bachelor of Commerce from Carleton University; he also spent a number of years involved in advanced research and development with a global technology provider.

Neil Bunn, Head of Enterprise Customer Engineering, Google
Experienced technology executive with time spent managing and migrating teams towards new and innovative applications of next-generation technologies. Significant experience in large scale infrastructures in HPC, retail solutions and scale-out computing, bridging into Cloud based technologies and agile approaches. Currently leading an amazing team of Google Customer Engineers to help Canadian business conquer and harness the benefits of cloud computing.

Stephen Spellicy, Vice President Product Marketing and Solutions, VMware
Stephen Spellicy is known in the software industry as a subject matter expert with experience in product marketing, technical marketing and product management. As Vice President of Product Marketing and Solutions for VMware’s Telco & Edge Cloud business unit, he is responsible for building awareness, influencing and driving customer demand in the market for VMware’s Telco Cloud Platform, which is designed for communication service providers (CSP) who seek to virtualize their network functions to increase agility and scale. Previously, Stephen led both the product management and marketing functions for Guavus, a Thales company, within the Mobile Connectivity Services business unit and has also held several senior marketing leadership roles at HPE, Dell/EMC, Lucent Technologies, EqualLogic, Njini, Inc., and Virtensys, Ltd. Stephen is based in Bedford, New Hampshire, married for 25 years with 3 children, and enjoys listening to and playing jazz. He is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, with a concentration of study in film scoring and 20th century music composition.
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