Biography

Biography

Cheryl Cran helps leaders and their teams to build future workplaces, today. Recognized as the #1 Future of Work influencer by Onalytica, Cran’s research into the future of work, technology, and leadership, driven by her “people first” and digital second philosophy, helps companies build the leadership capacity needed to change the world through business. For more than two decades, thousands of her clients have benefited from her expertise resulting in growth, evolution, and success.

Tech titan Michele Romanow is a serial entrepreneur who started six companies before her 35th birthday. A “Dragon” on CBC’s hit show Dragons’ Den, Romanow is the co-founder and CEO of Canadian unicorn, Clearco. Clearco has invested more than $3.2B into 7,000+ companies making them the biggest e-commerce investor in the world. She previously co-founded SnapSaves, acquired by American tech giant Groupon, and Buytopia.ca, which acquired ten competitors, including Shop.ca and WagJag.

In 2015, Romanow became the youngest judge on CBC’s Dragons’ Den. A prolific investor, she was named among Fortune’s “40 under 40”, a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, one of Canada’s “100 Most Powerful in Canada” by WXN, and Canada’s “Angel Investor of the Year”. She was also the only Canadian to be included in Forbes’ “Millennial on a Mission” list.

Romanow has created digital solutions for many of the world’s leading brands, including P&G, Netflix, Starbucks, and Cirque du Soleil. In the media, her work has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, TechCrunch, and The Globe and Mail.

Romanow is a director for Vail Resorts, BBTV and Queen’s School of Business. Previously she was a director for Freshii, Whistler Blackcomb, SHAD International, and League of Innovators. Romanow also co-founded the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative non-profit with Sir Richard Branson.

Biography

Biography

CEO, Prairie Payments

Duke is a seasoned corporate leader who demonstrates a passion for success and competitiveness in payments and who leads with integrity, accountability, and the aptitude to deliver on Prairie Payments’ vision for future organizational and system excellence.

Duke has a successful track record in the financial services sector bringing approximately 25 years of global experience in strategy, professional services and technology, serving in executive, senior management and consultant capacities for organizations including RBC, Deloitte and Touché LLP, Microsoft and American Express. Duke joins us most recently from RBC where he held several roles including Head, Enterprise Architecture Strategy for the Technology and Innovation Group as well as Head, Digital Bank Program where he was selected to lead a global start-up group developing and implementing an enterprise digital talent strategy for all lines of RBC’s business. Duke holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from Queen’s University, and Masters of Applied Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Waterloo.

Biography

Principal, Janet Brown Opinion Research

Janet Brown has been examining and tracking public opinion in Alberta for more than 25 years. Throughout her career, Janet has managed research assignments for all levels of government and numerous private sector organizations. She has extensive experience in both quantitative and qualitative research, having designed and managed hundreds of custom research projects.

Janet’s current practice focuses on helping clients better understand key audiences and stakeholder groups they are trying to influence. This could include customers, potential customers, employees, association members, voters, or the general public.

Together with Trend Research, Janet Brown conducted the only poll during the 2019 Alberta provincial election with results that were within the margin of error for all political parties.

She has also led a large-scale public opinion research project for CBC Calgary in Spring 2018, as part of their series “Calgary: The Road Ahead“. This research went beyond the “horse race” numbers to identify the underlying dynamics that are driving public opinion in Alberta ahead of the 2019 provincial election.

Janet is often invited to speak about political and social trends. She is a regular commentator on the CBC Calgary News at Six, Alberta Primetime on CTV2 in Alberta, and The Weekend Morning News on Global News Calgary.

She also continues to be active in the academic community and has delivered guest lectures at the University of Calgary, Mount Royal University, and Concordia University in Montreal. Janet is co-author of a chapter in “Orange Chinook: Politics in the New Alberta,” which was released by the University of Calgary Press in January 2019. Janet’s chapter is titled “Marginally Better,” and it analyses the publicly released polling from the 2015 Alberta election.

Janet Brown has a B.A. (Hons) in Political Science from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. She also undertook graduate studies in Political Science at York University in Toronto, and studied International Development and International Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science in London, England.

Biography

Lead Strategist, Canadian Equality Consulting

Heather is a Lead Strategist with Canadian Equality Consulting (CEC), a leading national consulting firm dedicated to improving the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in all workplaces and organizations. Heather’s work at CEC focused primarily on conducting organizational assessments to uncover opportunities and challenges within organizations, and to  support those organizations to develop concrete action and change management plans to support organizational growth toward a more equitable and inclusive culture.

Prior to working at CEC, Heather spent nearly 2 decades working in government settings focusing primarily on policy development and intergovernmental relations. Heather also worked for a Credit Union for a number of years as a Member Service Representative prior to completing her graduate education. Heather holds a BA and MA in Political Science from the Universities of Calgary and Alberta respectively.

Biography

Manager – ESG Strategy & Impact Services, KPMG Canada

Josh is part of KPMG in Canada’s ESG and advisory Services practice and focuses on helping companies embed ESG as part of growth and organizational strategy. With sustainability now a board room issue for all companies, Josh helps clients identify what ESG elements need to be focused on now in order to build and maintain their competitive advantage for years to come. Previously Josh grew and led the KPMG in the UK’s ESG strategy advisory practice which then embedded itself the KPMG’s Strategy & Value Creation team in London. In that role Josh worked with clients across a range of sectors and markets, including consumer goods, banking, insurance, infrastructure, TMT, government and industrial markets. Josh predominately focuses on delivering sustainability focused growth strategy services to clients with an emphasis on alignment to a company’s core activities and role in society, ESG implementation and reporting planning and well and responding to bespoke ESG mega forces. With a masters in Marine Biology combined with his experiences in the Canadian and UK markets, Josh brings a wealth of experience and insight.

Biography

Director, Industry Relations, Payments Canada

Robyn King is the Director of Industry Relations at Payments Canada, which oversees all external outreach with members and stakeholders of the Canadian Payments Ecosystem, as well as oversight on all committee structures and content within the organization. She has over 15 years of experience in payments, transactional banking, banking innovation and card payments in both the Southern African and Canadian markets. Robyn graduated from the University of Johannesburg with an Honours Bachelor of Science degree before later completing her MBA through Henley Business School (University of Reading, U.K.). Robyn is also a Certified Treasury Professional, gaining her CTP accreditation in 2020. Before joining Payments Canada, she worked in the modernization team within one of the big 5 Canadian banks. Prior moving to Canada, Robyn was at FirstRand Bank for 10 years, holding roles in Branch Banking, Innovation, Payments, and Merchant Acquiring.

Biography

Prairie Payments Joint Venture (PPJV) was created as the sole payments processing entity for the all prairie credit unions and other financial services organizations. PPJV is a joint venture between the Credit Union Centrals of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, collectively representing credit unions across the three prairie provinces to modernize and transform the payment processing infrastructure for the credit union system.

Our mission is to ensure prairie credit unions are competitive in payments by providing access to the most efficient, cost-effective and modernized payments processing infrastructure, empowering credit unions to be innovative while providing new payment product offerings for their members.

PPJV provides Interac e-Transfer® and other core payment processing solutions including Bill Payment, Wires, AFT and Cheque processing, and will play a central role in the modernization of payment processing activities for the credit unions and financial institutions served in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and beyond.

Canadian Credit Union Association is the national trade association for Canada’s credit unions and caisses populaires outside Quebec. Collectively, Canada’s 212 credit unions generate over $6.5 billion in economic impact, are leaders in small business lending, and have assets of $283 billion. CCUA members work together to advance the common interests of the sector. CCUA advocates for supportive legislative and regulatory policy development and works to improve federal and provincial legislation impacting credit unions. We support credit unions in meeting compliance expectations, develop and share national marketing campaigns and provide proactive communications to increase national awareness.

Cusource® is the professional develop and education arm of CCUA and supports the success of credit union employees and boards of directors by providing best-in-class continuing learning solutions in a variety of formats including instructor-led, virtual, micro-learning and eLearning. Comprehensive programs are designed and curated specifically for credit unions by industry experts and professionals and can be customized to meet an organization’s unique learning path and learning delivery requirements. Specialized solutions and programs include governance training for board members, employee professional development in particular areas of focus, sales and service skills success, and sustainability strategizing.

We are the leading Talent Development solutions provider for credit unions in North America.

We educate, develop and support credit union CEOs, executives, directors, and emerging leaders through partnerships with premier business schools, live and online events, digital learning, networking, and premium content. With 33,000+ members and growing, we measure success one leader at a time.

Connect with us at CUES.org. For daily insights on issues impacting credit unions visit CUmanagement.com.

Social Media Accounts:

LinkedIn:  CUES https://www.linkedin.com/company/348909/

Twitter:  @TheRealCues https://twitter.com/TheRealCUES

Instagram: @TheRealCues https://www.instagram.com/therealcues/

Facebook: CUES https://www.facebook.com/therealcues

Wyth Financial is the trade name of Concentra Bank, a purpose-driven Schedule I bank that serves Canadian consumers and businesses, credit unions and Fintechs. Headquartered in Saskatoon, SK, Wyth is a digital bank that helps people save money, buy a property, set up a Trust, manage an estate and grow a business. It also offers unique financial products created jointly with innovative partners.

Wyth Trust is the trade name for Concentra Trust, a federally regulated, wholly owned subsidiary of Concentra Bank. Concentra Bank has an investment-grade external debt rating from DBRS and is one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies.

Simpplr provides employee experience software that helps companies connect and align employees. With what Simpplr calls Live EX, the platform helps companies communicate better in a distributed world and measures an organization’s heartbeat by understanding employee alignment and sentiment in real time. Ultimately, Simpplr aims to enable more positive work environments by helping organizations be more open and caring.

Trusted by leading brands, including DocuSign, Eurostar, and AAA, our customers are achieving measurable productivity gains, increased employee engagement and retention, and accelerated business performance.