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The Canadian Institute’s 10th
Payments Forum
Speaker Biographies
DANY H. ASSAF is the Co-Chair of the Competition & Foreign Investment practice at Torys LLP in Toronto, Canada.
Mr. Assaf’s practice focuses on advising international and domestic clients on all aspects of competition law and
foreign investment matters including national security reviews and involved in many of Canada’s highest profile
transactions, investigations and reviews, including appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada. Mr. Assaf is a
co-author of Competition and Antitrust Law: Canada and The United States (4th edition) for LexisNexis
Butterworths (2014). He is recognized as a leading expert in areas of competition law and foreign investment law,
and named one of the world’s "Top 40 Competition Lawyers Under 40" by Global Competition Review and one of
Canada’s "Top 40 Lawyers Under 40" by Lexpert. Mr. Assaf has provided testimony on proposed amendments to
the Competition Act before the Canadian Senate and on the Investment Canada Act to a Canadian Parliamentary
Committee and was also a former Adjunct Professor of competition law.
Email: dassaf@torys.com Telephone: 416-865-7303
CHRIS BRADLEY is Associate General Counsel at Bank of Montreal. He is responsible for legal advice to BMO's
Canadian retail banking business. Chris has advised on payment card issues for over 25 years, including 19 years at
BMO. He has been involved in the Marcotte case since its inception in 2003.
Email: chris.bradley@bmo.com Telephone: 416-867-2766
ADDISON CAMERON-HUFF is an independent technology lawyer formerly with McCarthy Tetrault/BlackBerry. Over
the past year Mr. Cameron-Huff's practice has been focussed on the growing Bitcoin industry in Canada. His clients
include Decentral, Toronto's physical hub for Bitcoin companies, independent Bitcoin software developers, and
next-generation platform Ethereum. Before starting his legal career Mr. Cameron-Huff was a web developer and
has won awards at competitions held by PayPal and Yahoo! His clients are primarily software companies who need
legal assistance from someone who understands the technical details of Bitcoin.
Email: addison@cameronhuff.com Telephone: 647-466-7748
ANGELA CHARTRAND has 30 years’ experience within the Financial Services Domain concentrating on the
Compliance, Regulatory and Technology aspects of the business. She is an active member of the Canadian MSB
Association, Sitting Committee member of the Industry Standards, Conference, and Advocacy Committee of the
Canadian MSB Association. She is Co-Founder of Sentinence, a Compliance consulting firm offering a diverse range
of services from the research and submission to foreign regulators for international licensing, and obtaining
banking relationships, to the creation and implementing of AML Training and the creation and implementation of a
compliance regime that is based on risk appetite and your corporate compliance culture.
Email: angela@sentinence.com Telephone: 514-439-8197
CAMERON CLARK is Canada Region Counsel at MasterCard International Incorporated in Toronto. He began his
career with Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP and previously held a legal counsel position with Kellogg Canada Inc.
Cameron holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Victoria and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the
Queen’s University.
Email: Cameron_Clark@mastercard.com Telephone: 416-365-6677
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ELAINE J. CORMACK recently joined The Bank of Nova Scotia as Senior Counsel responsible for credit cards and
mobile payments. Prior to joining Scotiabank, she was Vice President Legal at HSBC Financial Canada. In her role at
HSBC, Elaine advised on all matters related to the HSBC MasterCard (issued by HSBC Bank Canada) and the HSBC
retail credit card business (operated through HSBC Retail Services Limited, a provincially regulated subsidiary), as
well as responsibility for insurance, vendor management, privacy, sanctions and anti-money laundering and
terrorist financing. Elaine spent much of her early career at Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP, where she was a partner
with the Financial Services Group. While at Blakes, Elaine provided advice to both Canadian and foreign financial
institutions, including banks, commercial and consumer finance companies and a variety of other financial service
providers. Her practice covered all aspects of regulatory compliance in the financial services industry with a special
emphasis on credit cards, consumer finance and anti-money laundering. Elaine also held in-house positions with
Capital One, The TSX Group, and Weston/Loblaw, which owns and operates President’s Choice Bank, issuer of the
President’s Choice MasterCard.
Email: elaine.cormack@scotiabank.com Telephone: 416-866-3431
GERALD COTTEN is the founder of QCX and has served as C.E.O. of QCX since December 2013. Mr. Cotten also
serves as a Director of the Vancouver Bitcoin Co-Op., since December 2013, and is a member of the Bitcoin
Foundation. Mr. Cotten is a graduate of the Schulich School of Business at York University, having received his
Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 2010. Mr. Cotten has been working with digital currency for
approximately 11 years and in September 2014 became certified as a Bitcoin Professional by the Crypto Currency
Certification Consortium.
Email: gerald.cotten@gmail.com Telephone:
RITA DILUCA is Associate Vice-President at TD Legal, supporting TD Bank's North American Credit Card and
Merchant Services Group in Canada which includes the TD Aeroplan, TD Cards and MBNA/CUETS Financial credit
card portfolios. She also supports TD's private label credit card business and TD Merchant Services. Rita joined TD
Legal in December, 2005 where her area of support has provided her with expertise in credit cards and other
payment cards, mobile initiatives, lending, vendor and service provider contracts, acquiring agreements,
outsourcing contracts including processing agreements, co-brand agreements, payment card network agreements,
litigation (including class actions), regulatory matters, Bank Act matters relating to the Cost of Borrowing
Regulations, Credit Business Practices Regulations, the Code of Conduct for the Debit and Credit Card Industry and
other consumer protection law issues. She has also had mergers and acquisition experience with her legal role
supporting the MBNA acquisition, the TD Aeroplan acquisition from CIBC and The Brick private label acquisition
from HSBC Financing, together with experience in new cards issuance and integration of products under each of
those acquisitions. Prior to joining TD Bank, she worked as in-house counsel in other financial institutions for
approximately 5 years and in private practice for 5 years before that, specializing in financial services including
secured and unsecured lending. Rita received her BA (Hons) in 1991 from the University of Toronto (St. Michael's
College) and her LLB (1994) from Queen's University and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1996. Given Rita's
background, experience and role in the payment card industry, she has been a speaker at previous Payment Card
Compliance Conferences, at mobile payment conference and has presented at other conferences highlighting the
role of women as in-house counsel in payments.
Email: rita.diluca@td.com Telephone: 416-307-7616
SHARISSA ELLYN is Of Counsel with Norton Rose Fulbright LLP and she focuses her practice on regulatory law and
compliance in the financial services and payments industries. She assists clients with a broad range of matters
related to payments and electronic commerce, including mobile payments and mobile wallet products and
services. She also has significant expertise with the legal and regulatory aspects of financing and leasing of various
types of equipment, including technology and motor vehicles. Immediately before joining our Toronto office, Ms.
Ellyn was in-house legal counsel to a leasing and financing company. She previously practised in the financial
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services group of another major law firm in Canada. Ms. Ellyn has developed expertise with respect to the various
regulatory and compliance issues that affect institutions involved in consumer and commercial loans and other
financial products, including credit cards, gift cards and other prepaid products, deposits, money transfers, and
payday loans. She has been involved in the structuring and development of credit and prepaid card programs. She
assists providers of financial services and products in drafting and improving their customer facing and other
standard form documents as well as with managing their legislative and regulatory compliance obligations. Ms.
Ellyn has recently been involved in various anti-money laundering compliance matters, including a comprehensive
review of the anti-money laundering compliance program for a Canadian branch of a foreign bank and advising
money-services businesses regarding their anti-money laundering compliance obligations. Ms. Ellyn provides
advice regarding regulatory and compliance matters that affect the provision and supply of financial products and
services, including in connection with the following, consumer protection legislation, federal and provincial cost of
borrowing and cost of credit disclosure requirements, federal financial institutions legislation and guidelines,
outsourcing arrangements, legislative compliance management, compliance programs, policies, and procedures,
anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist financing, and sanctions legislation, personal information protection, privacy,
anti-spam, and credit reporting requirements, requirements in connection with the collection of debts.
Email: Sharissa.Ellyn@nortonrosefulbright.com Telephone: 416.216.2468
JILLIAN FRIEDMAN is a Principal Attorney at Friedman Law and Chief Legal Counsel for Bitcoin Embassy. She
advises the e-commerce industry, with a particular focus on digital currency and financial tech. A member of the
Quebec bar, Jillian practices in both English and French. She provides advisory services to clients in various
industries, at all stages of their business, advising on legal requirements of new projects and technologies and
providing strategic legal and anti-money laundering compliance advice. Jillian is considered a leading expert on
crypto-currency and financial tech. Her views on cryptocurrency and technology law issues have been published in
Canadian Lawyer Magazine, The National Magazine, and the Huffington Post. Jillian has been an invited speaker a
numerous conferences and seminars including those hosted by the Canadian IT Law Association, the Canadian
Money Services Business Association, and the Bitcoin Foundation. She has also testified before the Senate
Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce on consumer protection law and digital currency. Jillian’s work can
be found in a variety of publications including the Supreme Court Law Review, Lexis Nexis’ Corporate Securities and
Financial Law Report, Huffington Post and on her blog at BitcoinLegal.ca. She also holds a Juris Doctor (J.D.) and is
pursing Masters in IT law through the University of Montréal.
Email: jillian@jillianfriedmanlaw.com Telephone: 514-664-4165
GERRY GAETZ is President and CEO of Canadian Payments Association. Since joining the CPA in March 2013, Mr.
Gaetz has been leading the modernization of the organization and of Canada’s core national payments
infrastructure. The development of a new vision for the CPA, to be the centre of excellence for payments in
Canada, and the CPA’s contributions to a broad-ranging governance review, sets a strong foundation for the CPA to
serve Canadians and its members by underpinning the Canadian financial system and providing safe, efficient and
effective clearing and settlement of payments. Mr. Gaetz joined the CPA following a distinguished career of
progressive and varied executive leadership at the Bank of Canada. From 2008 to 2013, he was Chief of Currency,
responsible for the Bank of Canada’s currency function, including the development and launch of Canada’s new
polymer banknote series, as well as retail payments-related economic research. Previously, he held the positions of
Chief of Banking Operations and Chief of Corporate Services. Mr. Gaetz is a member of the International Council of
Payment Association Chief Executives and the Banknote Ethics Initiative Accreditation Council. He co-leads the core
leadership development program at the Gestalt International Study Center in Boston and is on the advisory boards
of two private companies. Mr. Gaetz holds an MBA from the University of Ottawa and is a Certified Professional
Accountant.
Email: ccrockett@cdnpay.ca Telephone: 613-691-4433
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STUART HOEGNER is a cryptocurrency and gaming attorney and accountant in Toronto, Canada. His clients include
a wide variety of bitcoin and blockchain 2.0 entrepreneurs, land-based and Internet casinos and sports books,
gaming equipment manufacturers, and poker professionals. He writes a regular gaming and bitcoin blog. He is the
General Counsel to the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada and is the editor of ‘The Law of Bitcoin’ (forthcoming). Stu is
called to the bar in Canada and the United States. He is a member of the International Masters of Gaming Law, the
Law Society of Upper Canada, the State Bar of Nevada, the Society of Management Accountants of Ontario, the
Canadian Bar Association and the International Association of Gaming Advisors.
Email: stu@gamingcounsel.co Telephone: 416-545-0001
JOHNATHAN HOLLAND is a fourth year business student at the Goodman School of Business (Brock University)
with a passion to help other students. He teaches company valuations as the President of the Brock Finance &
Investment Group and sits on several boards for his entrepreneurial colleagues’ businesses out of BioLinc (the
business incubator at Brock). He has built a name for himself at the Goodman School of Business by winning several
awards and will continue to help others with their self-development. His passion for entrepreneurship runs deep.
His first start-up company called SmartPay is an innovative global payment solution business that he has been
working on for less than a year. He continually looks to build new business models to solve problems in innovative
ways. Johnathan’s passion for the business world began from self-teaching himself the stock market over the last
seven years and big business has resonated with him ever since. His end goal is to one day build water treatment
plants in third world countries on a massive scale so that the world can have access to clean drinking water .
Email: studentcurrencyexchange@gmail.com Telephone: 289-968-7422
JOHN JASON is of counsel at Norton Rose Fulbright LLP a leading international based law firm. In this role, John
advises the firm’s clients with respect to financial services regulatory and compliance matters. He is also a regular
contributor to the firm’s blog, regulationtomorrow.com. In 2011, John founded Canadian Compliance Group Inc., a
consulting practice focused on providing compliance and regulatory risk management solutions for the financial
services industry. Canadian Compliance Group continues to provide compliance solutions for the financial services
industry. It has partnered with Resolver GRC to offer market-leading regulatory compliance management tools.
Prior to forming CCG, John was Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for
Bank of Montreal where he headed the global compliance function for BMO’s diversified businesses, including
banking, capital markets, wealth management and insurance. Before joining BMO, John was in private practice at a
national law firm and was consistently ranked as one of the leading financial services lawyers in Canada. Early in
his career, John spend two years at the Department of Finance as part of a task force that overhauled Canada’s
financial services regulatory framework. John has a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School, an MBA from Ohio
University and a BComm from McGill University. He is also the course leader for the Financial Services Regulatory
Course offered as part of the LLM program at Osgoode Hall Law School.
Email: john.jason@cancomgroup.com Telephone: 416-216-2964
MARC LEMIEUX is a member of the Bars of Quebec and Ontario. He provides legal services and solutions to
suppliers and users of financial services in the banking and payment industries. He acts for clients in court cases,
financings and other commercial transactions, and compliance and regulatory matters. Mr Lemieux teaches
«Banking and Payment Law» at McGill’s Faculty of Law as sessional lecturer. As well, Mr Lemieux is a certified
mediator and arbitrator (Quebec Institute of Mediation and Arbitration) and provides alternative dispute
resolution services to participants in the banking and payment industries.
Email: marc.lemieux@dentons.com Telephone: 514-878-8806
KARRIE MACDONALD is VP of Business Development for Payments at Gemalto North America.
Email: Karrie.macdonald@gemalto.com Telephone: 905-335-8575
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DON MERCER is currently a Board Member and Vice president Responsible for Federal Matters and Chair, Financial
Services Issues Committee with the Consumers Council of Canada. Professionally, he has held positions such as:
Assistant Deputy Commissioner responsible for Pacific and Yukon Region (Vancouver), from 2004 to 2007; ADC
responsible for Ontario Region (Toronto and Hamilton) from 2000 to 2003; Several positions between 1972 to 2000
with the National Capital Region focusing on Compliance and Coordination, Civil Matters and Criminal Matters. He
worked at the Competition Bureau of Canada from 1972 to 2007, and was Assistant Professor, Economics, with the
University of Lethbridge, Alberta from 1971 to 1972. In the recent past, he has held the following volunteer
leadership: President; Board Member – Chair, Nominations and Governance Committee and Secretary. For 2010
and 2011, he was a Member of the External Stakeholder Advisory Committee with the Financial Consumer Agency
of Canada.
Email: don.mercer@consumerscouncil.com Telephone: 416-483-2696
LOU MILRAD is Legal Counsel & Senior Advisor at Milrad Law.
Email: lhmilrad@gmail.com Telephone: 647-982-7890
DEAN MURRAY is Legal Counsel at Rogers Communications, with a focus on mobile commerce and supporting
Rogers' Bank. In particular, Dean Murray has primary responsibility for supporting the suretap mobile wallet
initiative. Prior to joining Rogers, Dean Murray was an Associate in the Business Group at Blake, Cassels & Graydon
LLP. His practice focused on advising domestic and international clients on a full range of business matters,
including cross-border and Canadian mergers and acquisitions, equity/debt financing, private placements,
corporate reorganizations, commercial contract negotiations, as well as providing advice on regulatory matters
related to the payment industry and the Canadian anti-spam legislation.
Email: dean.murray@rci.rogers.com Telephone: 416-935-2591
STEVEN NOBLE is currently analyzing online payment behaviours at Stripe, a payment platform for the Internet.
Previously he’s analyzed e-commerce data at Shopify and built credit risk models at CTFS. He holds both BSc and an
MSc degrees in Mathematics from Dalhousie University. He’s also previously discussed the field of data science on
NRO’s The Agenda and has written one of the most cited online articles on the definition of churn rates.
Email: snoble@stripe.com Telephone: 1-888-963-8955
FRANCIS POULIOT is the Chief Executive Officer of The Bitcoin Foundation Canada.
Email: francis.vincent.pouliot@gmail.com Telephone: 1-855-922-3622
ELENA RESHETNIKOVA is Senior Legal Counsel with Accenture Finance and Accounting Global Regulatory.
Email: elena.v.reshetnikova@accenture.com Telephone: 647-210-5410
JEFFREY ROODE is a lawyer practicing corporate/commercial law in Toronto with a focus on the payment card
industry. He has acted in numerous matters involving a variety of payments industry participants including issuers,
acquirers, merchants, payment card networks, co-brand partners, data processing service providers, start-ups and
others. Jeff has advised on numerous commercial transactions as well as regulatory and consumer issues. Prior to
establishing his independent law practice, Jeff created a successful payments-focused law practice at a major
Toronto law firm. Prior to that, he was in-house lawyer at one of Canada’s largest banks and the lead lawyer for the
bank's credit card business for close to ten years. Jeff was named one of Canada’s top 40 under 40 in-house
counsel by Lexpert magazine in 2005.
Email: jroode@jroodelaw.com Telephone: 416-543-4230
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ELIZABETH SALE is an associate in Financial Services at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. Her practice focuses on the
regulation of financial institutions and other financial services providers, including banks, foreign banks, captive
finance companies, payday lenders, insurance companies, trust companies, loan companies and participants in the
payment card industry. Elizabeth provides advice on all aspects of financial services regulation including antimoney laundering, anti-terrorism financing, sanctions laws and unclaimed property laws. She has particular
expertise in both federal and provincial consumer protection and cost of borrowing legislation. Elizabeth also
advises domestic and international clients on a broad range of corporate and commercial matters, including new
product offerings, outsourcing arrangements and transactional matters. Elizabeth was recently seconded to the
personal banking group of a major Canadian bank where she advised on a broad range of consumer matters.
Email: Elizabeth.sale@blakes.com Telephone: 416-863-2602
AMBER D. SCOTT, MBA, CIPPC, CBP, CAMS. has broad-based financial compliance experience that includes
insurance, mutual funds and banking. In addition to being a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS)
Amber is also a Certified Privacy Professional (CIPP). She also holds a mutual fund sales designation from the
Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) and a first level Fellow, Life Management Institute (FLMI). She is also a
Certified Bitcoin Professional (CBP). Amber completed her undergraduate studies at the university of Waterloo. Her
academic interests have always included law and criminology. As a teaching assistant she assisted in the
development of the university’s first applied psychology course on criminal profiling. She has also received an MBA
from the University of Aspen. The first memory that Amber has about financial crime is hearing her father and a
friend of the family discussing the dilemma faced by a local union that had fallen under the influence of an
organized crime group. Pension monies had allegedly been deferred into investments that benefitted the crime
organization, but not the union membership. Many discussions with her father followed on the structures that
could allow a criminal organization to circumvent the controls in an established organization for their own
purposes without suffering any consequences. It was all very confusing and fascinating for a ten year old. While her
confusion has faded, her fascination never has. Amber is passionate about ethical and legal compliance. Her
obsession with understanding the risks and devising actionable solutions has lead her to work in the financial
services industry and with Canadian consulting firms. In 2013, she founded Outlier Solutions Inc. to provide antimoney laundering (AML) solutions to Canadian reporting entities. Amber is a firm believer in the idea that good
compliance can enable good business. Find out how at www.outliercanada.com or reach out to her directly at
amber@outliercanada.com.
Email: amber@outliercanada.com Telephone: 416-919-1623
MYRIAM SEERS is an Associate at Torys LLP.
Email: mseers@torys.com Telephone: 416.865.7535
JACQUELINE SHINFIELD is a Partner in the Financial Services Group of Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP. Jacqueline's
practice focuses on all aspects of regulatory compliance in the retail financial services and payments industry at
both the federal and provincial level with a special emphasis on payment card and payment system compliance.
Jacqueline has particular expertise in the payment industry and is a frequent speaker on the Canadian payment
landscape and regulatory compliance in the payments arena. She provides advice to those involved in all aspects of
the card industry, including credit card and gift card issuers, prepaid card issuers, card networks, as well as to credit
card and other card and bill processors and merchant acquirers. As a provider of services to these industries,
Jacqueline provides a wide range of advice on regulatory issues with respect to the development of new products
and distribution networks and on regulatory compliance with respect to payment systems legislation, anti-money
laundering and sanctions legislation and consumer protection legislation, including advice with respect to cost of
credit disclosure, credit reporting requirements, collection matters, privacy, Internet contracting, escheatment,
unfair trade practices, the Payment Card Networks Act, and the Code of Conduct for the Credit and Debit Card
Industry in Canada. She also provides advice to issuers of gift cards and stored value products on provincial gift card
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legislation across Canada. Jacqueline is recognized as a leading banking and financial services lawyer in The Best
Lawyers in Canada 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Email: jacqueline.shinfield@blakes.com Telephone: 416-863-3290
SANDY STEPHENS is an AVP in Compliance at TD Bank. She leads a team of compliance professionals and is
responsible for the compliance oversight of the Canadian Credit Card and Merchant Services businesses. Her
primary responsibility is to maintain an effective compliance management program to ensure ongoing compliance
with applicable regulatory requirements. Prior to joining TD in 2014, Ms. Stephens was Director, Compliance and
Director, Legal Counsel for Capital One. As legal counsel she was responsible for a broad range of matters including
marketing, cost of borrowing, privacy, collections, ecommerce, regulatory relations and contractual matters
including significant outsourcing, acquisition and partnership agreements. Ms. Stephens also worked at the
Canadian Bankers Association for 7 years, with experience prior to that at another financial institution as well as in
litigation. Ms. Stephens was called in to the Ontario Bar in 1993 and holds an LL.B. (1991) and an LL.M. (2004), from
Osgood Hall Law School.
Email: Sandy.Stephens@td.com Telephone: 416-983-7644
PETER TAYLOR is the President of TAYPE International Business Services Inc.
Email: peter.taylor@taypeinternational.com Telephone: 514-225-4179
MIKE VASELENAK is Senior Payments Products and Strategy Consultant with VCS Technologies Inc. He is a specialist
in payments and transactional systems product strategies and management, with over three decades of
experience. Mike has defined payments product strategies and specified or proposed software and services under
those strategies for leading Canadian, U.S. and international corporations including Canadian top tier banks,
national merchants, card networks, loyalty programs, crown corporations, telcos, credit unions, and federal and
provincial governments. Mike co-chaired the Advanced Card Technology Association’s committee on prepaid cards,
as well as the ACT committee on multi-application card issuance. Mike has also co-lead a Canadian Institute
workshop on ‘Roadmaps for New Payments Technologies’, and he has chaired the Canadian Institute ‘Forum on
Prepaid, Gift, and Stored Value Cards’ and also presented at the Institute’s 2014 Payments Compliance Forum.
Email: vaselenak@vcstechnologies.net Telephone: 905-584-0420
KAREN WILLIAMSON is the Chief Operating Officer of BitSent Inc. She graduated from the University of Guelph
with a Bachelor in Biological Sciences, honours and a minor in Psychology: Brain & Cognition. Her study of
biological systems has given her the ability to understand the big picture as a collection of micro-level interactions,
thus preparing her for a wide range of careers.Upon graduating, Karen applied herself to various self-employment
ventures. While she excelled at self-directed work she had yet to find a “killer app” that she truly felt passionate
about. Enter bitcoin. Karen’s career in the financial services industry began at SunLife Financial where she managed
risk as a medical underwriter and completed courses in administration and compliance. She then co-founded
BitSent Inc, Canada’s largest bitcoin ATM operator with 20 units coast to coast. At BitSent, Karen handles day-today operations as Chief Operator Officer. She has also developed BitSent’s compliance program and has
established and maintained working relationships with key financial services partners. Transferring her experience
in the insurance industry to the virtual currency industry has provided Karen with a unique perspective on the way
financial systems could work. Through her experiences in risk management, Karen understands the need for
traditional financial institutions to avoid high risk clients. However, her experiences working in the bitcoin industry
have shown how even proactive virtual currency businesses are being blocked out of key financial services: banking
services, general liability insurance coverage etc. In some cases, businesses are not even being blocked out based
on their individual risk profile but rather based on misunderstandings of the technology itself and a perceived lack
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of regulatory framework. She hopes that in the coming year, greater clarity can be gained so that virtual currency
businesses can properly implement compliance programs and gain financial inclusion.
Email: karen@bitsent.ca Telephone: 226-929-6215
OLGA ZIMAN SABBAGH is a senior legal counsel at Interac. Her practice is quite diverse and includes mobile
payments, corporate/commercial, regulatory compliance, mobile applications, privacy, IT/IP, e-commerce and
advertising law. She supports business units across the organization including Product and Operations, Security,
Technology & Fraud, as well as the Communications function, the Finance function, and the Compliance &
Regulations function. Most recently, she provided strategic advice with respect to the new Interac mobile debit
service and assisted in defining its infrastructure, as well as negotiating a mobile applet development and support
services agreement for it. Previously Olga has worked for a number of organizations both here in Canada and
internationally including the BBC, Deloitte and Bell Canada. She’s also a Certified Privacy Practitioner (CIPP/C). Olga
is internationally educated at some of the top law schools in the world and received her Masters in International
Business Law at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Olga re-qualified in Canada when she moved here 10 years ago
and has mentored a number of internationally trained lawyers making the same leap. Outside of law, she’s an avid
traveller, Professional Chocolatier and has even executive produced a movie or two.
Email: ozimansabbagh@interac.ca Telephone: 416-869-2021
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