As the Partner-in-charge of KPMG Ottawa’s Risk Consulting practice, Brian Bost has over 31 years of experience focused on the provision of risk management, internal audit, internal contols and other advisory services. Brian specializes in the provision of advisory services to the Canadian federal government, Crown corporations and other not-for-profit (NFP) organizations.  Brian obtained his Fellowship from CPA Ontario in 2016.

Brian has led numerous projects to facilitate the development of leading practices locally, nationally and internationally within Costing, Internal Audit, Internal Control and Risk Management.  Brian has been a presenter Nationally and Internationally, and published many articles and guides, on topics related to Internal Audit, Risk Management, Internal Control for the IIA, Federated Press, KPMG International, Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) and Financial Management Institute.

Brian is an active member of the professional community.  Brian is the Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee of the Institute on Governance and is the past Chair of the Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation (formerly CCAF), having held previous positions of Treasurer and Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee.  In addition, Brian is the past President of the Ottawa Chapter of the IIA, having held other chapter leadership positions in certifications, member services and past-president. Brian was also a member of the International Internal Audit Advisory Committee for Treasury Board, providing Internal Audit advice to the Controller General and Assistant Controller General on various Internal Audit matters.

John has held a series of roles with increasing responsibility at MindBridge and currently serves as Senior Vice President of Strategic Insights and Marketing. Before joining MindBridge, John held leadership positions in brand management, product experience, and design at IBM, including as a member of the team that launched IBM Watson Analytics. Prior to IBM, John was Vice President of Sales Operations for Clarity Systems, later acquired by IBM. John holds a bachelor’s degree in financial operations and accounting from Seneca College.

Becky Drummond is a Manager at Baiame Consulting. Becky brings over 7 years of experience in financial management and accounting related services; specifically, internal control design, development and implementation including assessments, documentation and testing of internal controls, control and risk assessment, regulatory compliance, fraud risk management, fraud awareness and other advisory activities; within private and public sector organizations.

Becky’s focus on risk and financial management stems from her training as a Chartered Professional Accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner both as an external consultant and as an industry professional. Becky focuses on providing advice and managing projects regarding improving operational and financial management; specifically the identification, testing, design and implementation of management and financial controls, the design, development, implementation and assessment of risk management structures within organizations and undertaking transformation services.

Nicole Dufresne Baker has over 30 years of experience in financial management.  Her focus is assisting Federal Government entities with the implementation of their internal controls programs as well as providing insights and advice on business processes.  Nicole is an experienced facilitator and has previously made presentations to Infonex, the GC Internal Controls Working Group and Financial Management Institute (FMI). Nicole is a CPA-CA, CIA and holds a masters degree in public sector financial management from Rutgers University.

Mike is a partner in Deloitte’s Assurance practice in Toronto. He has experience primarily in the Canadian marketplace with a wide variety of small to large market companies in various industries, including organizations that are private, public and public sector. Mike has worked closely with many leading companies helping in selection, governance, strategy and implementation approaches as it relates to ERP, analytics and financial reporting solutions. Mike’s key focus is on CFO alignment and effectiveness strategies, finance effectiveness, and the people, process and technology enhancements required to modernize finance.

Claudine holds an LL.B. in Civil Law from the Université de Sherbrooke, a B.Admin from the University of Ottawa, and a Certified Government Auditing Professional (CGAP) designation from the Institute of Internal Auditors. Claudine first joined the federal public service in 2010 as a Senior Auditor at the Office of the Comptroller General, Treasury Board Secretariat. In this capacity, she led internal audits in federal departments and provided recommendations to senior management, namely through the conduct of Core Control audits, which had for objective to assess the design and operations of the governance, risk management, and control processes. Since 2013, she has performed a variety of internal audits, including at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Global Affairs Canada, and the Public Service Commission, including audits in the area of grants and contributions, procurement, and regulatory compliance. In 2016, she became Manager, Internal Audit Directorate, at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, where she is now the Director of the internal audit function.

In 2020, Claudine was appointed President of Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) Ottawa Chapter, where she is responsible for leading all aspects of the chapter, including setting its strategy and direction, in support of its 1200+ members. In addition to her involvement with the Ottawa Chapter, Claudine has served on IIA North America’s Learning Solutions Committee. Claudine is passionate about internal audit because of the value it brings to the federal government through areas of improvements identified, in support of stewardship and excellence in the design and delivery of public sector policy, programs and services.

Claire Lake is the Founding Partner of Baiame Consulting. Claire has over 20 years of experience in management consulting, financial management and accounting related services.  She has worked in industries as diverse as the Public Sector, Financial Services, High Tech and IT, Automotive, Energy and Engineering. In addition, her career spans the Globe, as she has provided advice and counsel to companies and organizations in countries including Canada, the USA, the UK, France, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East, absorbing business knowledge and best practices along the way.

Claire’s focus on financial management stems from her training as a professional accountant and her extensive experience working with Chief Financial Officers and their offices.  Claire has used her exposure to multiple industries and cultures to develop a breadth of expertise and experience including the review and transformation of the CFO function within organizations; the development and implementation of financial management governance structures including financial policy instruments and supporting tools; design, development, implementation and testing of internal control frameworks including internal controls over financial reporting; re-engineering of operational processes and development of continuous improvement programs, and organizational improvement including organizational and operational structure re-design, transformation and change management.

Matthew Lammers career in Cyber spans more than 20 years. He has worked at IBM for more than a decade and has spent early years at the Big 4. Matthew has held several domestic and international roles as CISO at large, cross-industry organizations. Part of Matthew’s career includes Public Sector work with US Agencies on specialized cyber activities. The work he and his colleagues conducted was later declassified and used as a standard for protecting nuclear power generation stations from cyber threats. At IBM, Matthew’s focus is on large-scale and enterprise cyber environments. His activities include being a trusted advisor to the IT SLT, ELTs, and Boards. Matthew is a US citizen and Australia and New Zealand Permanent Resident with unrestricted work rights.

John Lark is an accomplished manager with broad experience in the management of staff, budgets and deliverables. He has managed research teams, chaired federal-provincial committees, and facilitated workshops at the Board level of large-scale organizations with domestic and international operations. He is a leader in risk management whose skills have been recognized internationally. He has worked with Canadian federal and provincial governments as well as the OECD, the US EPA, the Canadian Standards Association, the Risk Management Institution of Australasia and ISO, the International Organization for Standards. Mr. Lark has also been an invited speaker on Enterprise Risk Management, Operational Risk, Risk for Boards of Directors, and Internal Audit Control and convened an invited session of global leaders in risk management. He was awarded the global certification in risk management, CPRM in 2010.

He is a highly regarded global expert and has been an invited keynote speaker at international conferences in Washington D.C., Biel Switzerland and, Sydney, Canberra and Cairns Australia. Mr. Lark was one of Canada’s delegates to the ISO risk management Committee and was a Team Leader of several ISO Working Groups and Subcommittees. Mr. Lark was the sole author of the international ISO Guide to implementing ISO 31000:2009 released in January of 2016.

Mr. Lark also has extensive Board experience and is Chair of two Not For Profit Boards and sits on the board of several major charities. He recently completed the Director’s Education Program that is jointly offered by the Institute of Corporate Directors and the Rotman School of Management. After completing the course he successfully passed the qualifying exams and earned the ICD.D designation confirming his knowledge of Board obligations, structures and functions as well as all legal and regulatory obligations.

Charity has over 15 years of experience internal controls within both public and private sector organizations. She focuses on leading assessments of complex IT controls, as well as business process controls. Charity has assisted several federal government departments with their Internal Control over Financial Reporting implementations and ongoing monitoring, and works with a number of government departments providing advice and guidance on internal control frameworks and training. Charity is a CPA, CA and CISA.

Dr. Richard Leblanc is one of Canada’s leading experts on corporate governance and accountability. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Certified Management Consultants of Ontario, and is an award-winning teacher, researcher, lawyer, public speaker, consultant and specialist on boards of directors. He teaches at leading universities including Harvard University. He is a member of Canadian Who’s Who.

Dr. Leblanc brings to business and professional audiences a depth of information from his extensive research and work with over 250 organizations and boards, and training and development of over 1,500 directors and managers. He is engaging, dynamic, and personable. Because of his work with leading companies and current research, he is always on the cutting edge of emerging global developments.

Dr. Leblanc has authored over 200 publications and reports, delivered over 450 invited speeches and training sessions, and sat for over 450 media appearances.

Dr. Leblanc is Editor of “The Handbook of Board Governance: A Comprehensive Guide for Public, Private, and Not-for-Profit Board Members,” 2nd Ed. (Wiley, 2020). His first edition has sold 7,000 copies worldwide and the seminal “Inside The Boardroom” has sold over 6,500 copies. Dr. Leblanc’s work has been described by various faculty at Harvard, Yale, London Business School and elsewhere as “great & much needed,” “wonderful and pragmatic,” “thorough” and “nothing short of remarkable,” as well as by Fortune 500, NYSE, FTSE and other company leaders as “leading edge,” “ground-breaking,” “valuable guidance,” “indispensable,” “compelling” and “exceptional.”

Dr. Leblanc’s insight has guided leaders of organizations through his teaching, research and direct consultation to national and multi-national corporations and government regulators. He has provided extensive service as an external advisor to boards of directors that have won national awards and peer endorsement for their governance practices. His applied research has been used by, and he has advised, financial and securities regulators, investors, and board and committee chairs. He has been retained to advise on under-performing boards to implement governance and shareholder accountability reforms. He has advised boards, board committees, committee chairs and CEOs, and has advised on CEO performance and director and CEO succession planning and removal, consistent with shareholder value creation and stakeholder accountability.

Dr. Leblanc is frequently consulted by stakeholders – such as companies, investors, associations, partnerships, not-for-profit organizations, Crown organizations, the media and regulators – for the latest developments and trends, and customizes his speaking engagements and consultations to suit all types of audiences. He is the founder and principal of Boardexpert.com, an advisory firm providing customized governance transformation.

Dr. Leblanc possesses an extensive professional network. He is the founder of Boardexpert.com Inc and the LinkedIn Groups “Boards and Advisors,” and “Audit Committees,” with almost 30,000 and 15,000 members globally, which are among the largest and most active online corporate governance groups. His regular newsletter is accessible to 40,000 directors and other governance professionals.

Dr. Leblanc adopts a framework for governance effectiveness developed over several years. His work, directly or indirectly, has impacted companies throughout the world, including those that have used Dr. Leblanc’s methodology to strengthen their governance effectiveness and accountability practices.

Dr. Leblanc holds a Bachelor of Science degree, an MBA, Canadian and American law degrees, a Masters in Law, and a PhD focusing on board of director effectiveness.

He can be reached at rleblanc@boardexpert.com, on Twitter at @drrleblanc, or through his LinkedIn group, Boards and Advisors.

Darrin Nowakowski is the National Head of Cyber Security Strategy and Service Evolution for CGI Canada where he has spent over two years building new capabilities and leading new teams. These include a modernization of client facing Security Operations to provide rapid and accurate threat detection, proactive Threat Hunting and Digital Forensics and Incident Response as well as fraud detection with a focus on the current industry pivot to Cloud Security. Darrin is working to reduce cybersecurity risk for a number of large organizations by incorporating Threat Intelligence and ML/AI driven analytics into 7/24 security operations. Mr. Nowakowski is also a vCISO for high value clients in the financial industry where he is responsible for the protection of information and anti-fraud systems. Of his 20+ years working in information security, Mr. Nowakowski has more than 15 years of experience in the Canadian Public Sector as a Chief Security Architect for several Provincial Agencies. He served as an advisor on all strategic issues relating to cyber security, fraud, governance, program management and strategic planning. Recent experience includes leading the development and implementation of analytics platforms for fraud detection across multi-billion-dollar payment systems.

Rob Pitcher is the manager of the Cyber Engagement team with the Critical Infrastructure Directorate of Public Safety Canada. He has over two decades of experience, both at the private and public level, with his current responsibilities consisting of leading the national industrial controls system cyber security awareness program, cyber security exercises, and the Public Safety insider risk program.

Roxane is currently the Director, Internal Controls, at Public Services and Procurement Canada, in Ottawa ON.

She enjoys more than 10 years as a public servant, having occupied several roles in oversight management and audit.

Prior to joining the federal government, she specialized in Finance in the banking industry, and in Insolvency (Trustee) after her specialization in auditing and obtaining her CPA designation.

She is a McGill University graduate, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce in International Business and Marketing, a Graduate Diploma in Public Accountancy, and a Graduate Diploma in Public Relations and Business Communications. She is originally from the Montreal QC area.