Inovatec Summit 2024

Bill Johnston

 
With more than 20 years leading Data & Analytics teams in Credit Risk, Marketing and Loyalty 
Management, Bill presents complex analytical solutions through meaningful business stories, thinking 
from the customer perspective to address true business needs. Prior to Equifax, Bill implemented an 
Analytical Centre of Excellence at Canada Post, consolidating data management, data sciences and data 
governance. In addition, he led the analytics team at Chase Credit Card Services and managed 
acquisition credit risk at Citi Credit Cards. Bill holds a MA in Economics from the University of Guelph. 

Daniel Parry

Daniel Parry is a veteran of auto lending with over 25 years of experience in risk management, capital markets, analytics, and building companies in the consumer lending space. He started his career in auto finance in the late 1990’s with AmeriCredit, now GM Financial, where he was the senior vice president of risk management, overseeing modeling, forecasting, pricing, and loss provisioning on a $16 billion subprime auto portfolio. In 2006, Daniel co-founded Exeter Finance with three other partners and served as Chief Credit Officer, building the company from a startup to over $2.5 billion in auto receivables. In 2014, Daniel left Exeter to found Praxis Finance, securing a $100 million joint venture with a hedge fund to acquire and manage auto portfolios. In 2017, he co-founded TruDecision, building out a first-of-its-kind analytic platform-as-a-service and working with captives, banks, credit unions, independent lenders, and publicly traded companies in auto, powersports, motorcycle, mortgage, and personal lending products.

James Taylor

James is a partner and the founder of Decision Management Solutions. He is the leading expert in how to use decision modeling, business rules, and analytic technology to deliver Digital Decisioning. For the last 20 years, James has provided strategic consulting to companies of all sizes across all sectors to improve decision-making and effectively adopt advanced analytic technology.

David Fry

David is the CEO and Founder (2018) of Paays Financial Technologies Inc. (“Paays”), and has been an active participant in the Canadian FinTech space since 2015.  Previous to this, David was Founder and CEO of Lawrence Park Capital Partners (now Lawrence Park Asset Management), a Toronto-based credit hedge fund that was purchased by CI Financial.  Additionally, David has close to 20 years of capital markets, fixed income and credit, derivatives and asset-backed securitization expertise in senior leadership roles with global banks in London, New York and Toronto.  David currently resides in Toronto with his wife and 3 university-aged children.”

Chris Gateas

Chris Gateas is a Senior Sales Executive at REPAY with over 10 years’ experience in fintech, specializing in full-stack development and user-centric design. He has led projects that significantly improved transaction efficiency and user experience. Outside of work, Chris is dedicated to fitness and enjoys daily workouts 

Faizal Karim

Faizal Karim is the VP of Product at VoPay, a leading FinTech-as-a-Service company. With over 12 years of experience in technology and banking, Faizal is recognized for driving innovation and building high-performing teams. In his role, he shapes VoPay’s product vision and roadmap, developing solutions that empower clients and lead the industry. By focusing on user experience and market demands, Faizal ensures VoPay stays ahead of trends. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The University of British Columbia. Passionate about leveraging technology to solve real-world problems, Faizal turns ideas into impactful products, driving VoPay’s growth and solidifying its industry leadership. 

Matthew Roe

Matt Roe has served as the Chief Revenue Officer of Open Lending since October 2019. Mr. Roe has been with Open Lending since 2007, and has worked in a variety of roles across the marketing, implementation, operations, finance and IT systems divisions, including as Marketing Manager from September 2010 to April 2016, National Accounts Manager from January 2013 to December 2016, Regional Vice President of Sales from April 2016 to October 2017 and Senior Vice President from October 2017 to October 2019. Mr. Roe has more than ten years of experience working with the Open Lending marketing, account management, sales and product teams. Mr. Roe holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Texas State University. 

Cheryl Woodburn

Cheryl Woodburn serves as Country Manager for Canada at Provenir, a global leader in AI-powered risk decisioning software. Cheryl manages all operations as Provenir responds to the record-breaking growth the company is experiencing in North America.  

Cheryl has more than 25 years of experience in global software, analytics, data and technology markets, Prior to joining Provenir, she served as Vice President, Sales at Equifax. She also served as in senior leadership roles at FICO and IBM, overseeing sales and customer success teams, sales enablement, and business operations.  

Christopher Tollstam

With a deep background in finance and the automotive sector, Chris heads up M&A and finance for the H Greg Group and is the president of Carly FInancial. Prior to joining H Gregoire, Chris held senior positions within prominent Canadian financial institutions. He is a CFA Charterholder, holds the FRM designation and studied at Harvard University.

Sam Calautti

Sam Calautti, Director of Retail Finance operations for Yamaha Financial Services in Canada.  Happily married rabid motorcycle enthusiast who can be found rolling the streets on one of his bikes when he’s not acting as a part time Chauffer for his kids.  Professionally, Sam manages the day-to-day operations for Yamaha Financial Services encompassing everything from Credit and Funding through to Customer Service, Collections and Recovery.  Recently moved to the Operations role after 8 years helping grow the Sales, Marketing and Product channels since the launch of YFS in 2016.

Christopher Tannous

Christopher Tannous (Chris) is the Owner and President of Powersports Link Financing, a prominent brokerage offering comprehensive financing support to Automotive, Powersports, Marine, and RV dealers across Canada. Under Chris’s leadership, the company has rapidly grown to become one of the larger financing brokers in the country. In addition to his role at Powersports Link Financing, Chris is actively consulting for an international EV automobile distributor poised to import and distribute major brands into the Canadian market.