The 2019 Toronto Tech & Innovation Family Office Conference Agenda

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08:00 – 09:00 AM Breakfast and Registration
 
09:00 – 09:20 AM Opening Remarks: Mr. Chad Bayne, Partner, Emerging and High Growth Companies, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and Mr. Denny Chared, Founder & CEO, DC Finance
 
09:20 – 10:00 AM Special Keynote Presentation: Journey to Success – The Founders Kitchen Model – Mr. Uri Levine, Entrepreneur, Founder of Waze, Founder & Board Member of FeeX, Moovit, FairFly, Engie, Refundit, Seetree and more
 
10:00 – 10:15  AM Investing in Deep Tech – Technologies for high data rates while maintaining data integrity and efficient deployment – Mr. Riadh Zine, Co-Founder & Principal, Roadmap Capital Inc.
 
10:15 – 10:30 AM Innovation in Healthcare - Mr. Sam Ifergan, Founder & CEO, iGan Partners
 
10:30 – 10:40 AM Dreaming Beyond The Horizon Of Current Solutions For Diabetic People: The story of Beta-O2 Technologies - Mr. Amir Lichter, CEO, B-O2
 
10:40 – 10:50 AM Impact Investing Toward Better Health – A Uniquely AmorChem Solution Ms. Elizabeth Douville, Managing Partner, Co-Founder, AmorChem 
 
10:50 – 10:55 AM Impact Investing in Canada – The Opportunity in Venture Capital  Ms. Kathryn Wortsman, Fund Manager, Amplify Capital
 
10:55 – 11:30 AM Break
 
11:30 – 12:15 AM Direct and Fund Tech Investing for Family Offices Panel
Description: Family offices have many alternatives for investing in Emerging Technology companies. Join industry experts as they discuss alternatives, pros and cons and potential returns.
Moderator:  Mr. Tom Kennedy, Chairman, Kensington Capital Partners Limited
With: Ms. Maria Pacella, SVP, Private Equity and Portfolio Manager, PenderFund Capital    Management Ltd.; Ms. Natty Nashman, Managing Director, INcapital Ventures; Mr. Mark Skapinker, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Brightspark Ventures;  Mr. Carey Diamond, Managing Director, Whitecap Venture Partners
 
12:15 – 01:00 PM Marketplace Panel 
Description: Hear from Canadian marketplace leaders on the evolving marketplace system and their strategies for scaling.
Moderator: Mr. Shayn Diamond, Partner, Whitecap Venture Partners
With: Mr. Ray Reddy, Co-Founder & CEO, Ritual; Mr. Kuljeev Singh, CEO & Co-Founder, ResQ; Mr. Paul Arlin, Co-Founder & Chief Marketplace Officer, Jiffy; Mr. Eran Henig, Co-Founder & CEO, Platterz
 
01:00 – 02:00 PM Lunch
 
02:00 – 02:30 PM Fireside Chat - The Roots of AI, How it is Evolving and Why it is Important Mr. Jordan Jacobs, Co-Founder, CEO, Managing Partner, Radical Ventures 
Mr. Uri Levine, Co-Founder, Waze; Ms. Raquel Urtasun, Chief Scientist & Head, Uber ATG; Associate Professor, The University of Toronto
 
02:30 – 03:10 PM Fintech Investing Panel
Description: Lively discussion with the next generation of innovative, global financial services companies backed by Portag3 Ventures, part of the Power Financial Corporation ecosystem. In 1968, financier  Paul Desmarais took control of Power Corporation which is, today, a third generation Canadian multinational diversified management and holding company with significant assets in financial services and diversified industries.  Portag3 Ventures has a unique perspective on large family office investors pairing with tomorrow’s financial entrepreneurs to protecting the future through strategic investing.
Moderator: Mr. Adam Felesky, CEO, Portag3 Ventures 
With: Mr. Michael Katchen, Co-Founder & CEO, WealthSimple; Mr. Andrew Graham, Co-Founder, CEO, Borrowell; Mr. Corey Gross, Founder, CEO, Sensibill; Ms. Michele Romanow, Co-Founder, President, Clearbanc
 
03:10 – 03:40 PM Special Keynote Speaker: Family Business, World Changes and QUÉBEC  Reawakening Mr. Philippe III de Gaspe Beaubien, Serial Entrepreneur who has established numerous start-ups and turn-arounds over the past 20 years. Currently working with 14 companies, Philippe has a number of key strengths that distinguish him from the general entrepreneurial environment.
 
 03:40 – 04:00 PM Closing Remarks: Mr. Chad Bayne, Partner, Emerging and High Growth Companies, Osler, Hoskin
 
 04:20 – 05:30 PM A Cocktail Reception at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
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Ms. Kathryn Wortsman

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Kathryn leads Amplify Capital, formerly MaRS Catalyst Fund, an impact venture fund based in Toronto and focused on investing in Canadian ventures solving social and environmental challenges through technology and business.  The Fund has a focus on generating outsize returns from early stage impact venture investing.  The Fund targets investments in clean energy, healthcare and education markets with quantified impact outcome targets for each sector.  Catalyst Fund investors include Richard Branson’s Virgin Unite Foundation, family offices, a pension fund and high net worth individuals.

Kathryn started her career in investment banking then quickly moved to in venture capital and private equity where she saw the opportunity to make a long term investment and be part of building value and growth.   In Toronto, Kathryn spent time at CIBC Capital Partners, BMO Capital and Lynx Equity, a succession fund. In New York, Kathryn actively invested and managed a portfolio of early stage media technology companies with Constellation Ventures, a Bear Stearns-sponsored venture capital fund. Kathryn also actively invested and managed strategic insurance technology investments for MetLife, the largest life insurer in the United States, and subsequently joined its corporate development team to create new products and services.

Kathryn has held a number of board roles and participated in a number of exits, including strategic acquisitions, follow-on financings and IPOs for portfolio companies she managed directly.  In 2012, Kathryn jumped to a CEO role and managed operations through Toronto-based search fund Crest Capital.   Her passion for social finance was born a decade ago when she joined Social Venture Partners NYC and then subsequently founded Social Venture Partners Toronto. Kathryn was born and raised in Toronto and has an undergraduate degree from the University of Western Ontario and an MBA from Columbia University in New York.

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Dr. Elizabeth Douville

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Dr. Douville is Managing Partner and Co-founder of AmorChem, a Québec-based seed venture fund dedicated to financing and commercializing university-based life sciences technologies.  Launched in 2011 with a capital of $41,25M, the AmorChem fund model uniquely combines access to financial resources with a virtual incubator structure that enables the rapid development and commercialization of life science technologies.  The first fund successfully built a portfolio of 24 technologies, leveraged its initial capital to close to $76M with non-dilutive sources, transacted three pharma exits and spun out six biotech companies.  The AmorChem II fund was launched in September of 2017 and now has $53.7M in capital under management with a mandate to invest in both the provinces of Québec and Ontario.

Elizabeth brings to AmorChem a deep and long-standing experience in venture capital investing having been General Partner of GeneChem, a leading North American life sciences venture capital fund manager.  She joined GeneChem in 1997, moving rapidly from Manager to Partner with the different funds under management.  Elizabeth is very involved and active in the life sciences industry, providing guidance and leadership on the boards of several companies and organizations.  In addition to her participation on the boards of portfolio companies Mperia Therapeutics, Corbin Therapeutics, SemaThera and Fairhaven Pharma, she has recently been appointed Chair of Genome Canada; a not-for-profit organization funded by the Canadian Federal Government to support applied genomics.  She is also an active board member of BioCanRx, a Networks of Centers of Excellence for Bio-Therapeutics for Cancer Treatment and is a Member of the CFI, the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Elizabeth trained as a biochemist, obtaining her PhD from the University of Ottawa and a post-doctoral fellow from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, UK. She also has a business degree from CIREM/HEC.

 

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Ms. Natty Nashman

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Natty Nashman is the co-founder and Managing Partner of INcapital Ventures, a Canadian Venture Capital fund dedicated to investing in early growth stage Israeli technology companies in sectors such as: data engineering, fintech, cyber security, IoT and artificial intelligence.  At INcapital, Natty leads a team of successful technology entrepreneurs, with strong relationships within the Israeli start up eco-system and a successful track record of investments.

Previously, Natty was a principal at MBN Capital, a private family vehicle which focused on early stage B2B software companies. At MBN Capital, she evaluated investment opportunities, mentored and provided scaling opportunities to her portfolio companies.  Prior to MBN Capital, Natty was part of the corporate strategy team and an active board member at Clarity Systems.  Clarity was the global leading independent vendor for corporate performance management solutions, prior to its acquisition by IBM in 2010.

Natty is also the acting chair of the Innovation Hub at Mount Sinai Hospital where she is working to establish an accelerator for early stage companies in the healthcare field, in collaboration with the hospital and the Lunenfeld-Tenenbaum Research Institute.

Natty holds a Bachelor of Science form Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and an MBA from the Ivey School of Business, Western University.

 

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Mr. Sam Ifergan

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Sam has over 20 years of entrepreneurial, technology and venture capital experience. He founded iGan Partners in 2013 and iGan is now the largest healthcare VC investor in Canada. As Managing Director, Sam is involved in the evaluation, structuring, execution, and support of iGan’s investments. Sam is a leader in the commercialization of innovative healthcare technologies in both the medical device and healthcare IT sectors. Currently, Sam is Chairman of eSight and MolecuLight and sits on the board of seven other MedTech companies and has helped oversee six exits. Prior to founding iGan Partners, Sam co-founded and exited several companies including Visualsonics, Tri-Link Technologies and Brighter Minds. Sam started his career as a strategy consultant with Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman) where he advised Fortune 500 companies on corporate strategy. Sam holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from McGill University and an MBA from The John Molson School of Business.

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Mr. Jordan Jacobs

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Jordan Jacobs is Co-Founder, CEO and Managing Partner of Radical Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on investing in world-leading companies developing and applying deeply disruptive tech, with a particular focus on Artificial Intelligence. In May 2019 Radical launched a US $350 Million fund focused primarily on Series A investments, with LPs that include CPPIB, PSP Investments, Temasek, TD Bank Group, Wittington and Advance Media.

Jordan previously co-founded Layer 6 AI and was co-CEO prior to its acquisition in January 2018 by TD Bank Group where he joined as Chief AI Officer (Business & Strategy). Jordan is also a founder of the Vector Institute, a concept he devised and initiated with Layer 6 co-founder Tomi Poutanen and Professors Geoffrey Hinton and Richard Zemel. Jordan is on the board of directors of CIFAR, and is Speak to you tomorrow.an Associate at the Rotman School’s Creative Destruction Lab.

Jordan previously co-founded Milq, a cultural content discovery platform that was an early adopter of using machine learning for personalization, and has worked with organizations like the NBA, NY Times and Barnes & Noble. Jordan also founded SpyBox Media, through which he developed and partnered with Elton John’s Rocket Pictures to executive produce the TV series Spectacle. Hosted by Elvis Costello, the Emmy-nominated, NY Times Top 10 TV series features guests including Bono and The Edge of U2, Bruce Springsteen, Renée Fleming, Lou Reed, Diana Krall and Herbie Hancock.

Jordan spent 15 years as a tech and media lawyer, and received his JD from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, where he was admitted at age 19.

 

 

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Mr. Tom Kennedy

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Tom Kennedy is the founder of Kensington Capital Partners and Chair of the Investment Committee. Tom serves on the Advisory Boards of several private equity funds and private companies and has been an active supporter of the Private Equity and Venture Capital business in Canada. His public service and philanthropic work has been a longstanding, and focused on education and healthcare.

Tom’s previous experience includes 10 years in operational and management positions with Consolidation Coal Co. and Alberta Energy Company. He has investment banking experience as a senior executive with Bunting Warburg, Lancaster and TD Securities.

Tom holds a B.Sc.Eng. (Mining) from Queen’s University and a D.B.A. from the University of Edinburgh and is a professional engineer.

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Ms. Michele Romanow

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Tech titan Michele Romanow is an engineer and a serial entrepreneur who started five companies before her 33rd birthday. Michele is the co-founder of Clearbanc, which invested more than $150 million in 500 companies in 2018 with plans to invest $1 billion this year. She previously co-founded SnapSaves, which was acquired by American tech giant, Groupon in 2014. Michele was also the co-Founder of Buytopia.ca, which acquired ten competitors including Shop.ca and WagJag and was ranked #3 on the Profit Hot 50 list of fastest growing companies. She’s ranked in WXN’s “100 Most Powerful in Canada” and listed as the only Canadian on Forbes magazine’s “Millennial on a Mission” list.

Michele is a prolific angel investor and the winner of Angel Investor of the Year award. She co-founded the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative with Richard Branson to encourage entrepreneurship.

Michele has created digital solutions for many of the world’s leading brands, including P&G, Netflix, Starbucks, and Cirque du Soleil. She began her career as the Director of Strategy for Sears, where she led apparel growth  — a $2.5 billion category at the time.

In the media, Michele’s work has been profiled in Forbes, Canadian Business, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and Chatelaine.

During her Civil Engineering undergrad at Queen’s University, Michele founded The Tea Room, the first zero-consumer-waste coffee shop. At Queen’s, she was given the Queen’s Tricolour — the highest honor awarded by the university — and, after completing her Queen’s MBA, she founded Evandale Caviar, a vertically integrated commercial fishery.

Michele is a director for Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN), Freshii (TSX: FRII), League of Innovators, Queen’s School of Business and Shad International –  a transformational program that develops the entrepreneurial potential of exceptional Canadian youth.

Michele is a Calgary native and currently splits her time between Toronto and San Francisco.

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Mr. André Perey

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André is a corporate partner in Osler’s Toronto Office. His practice focuses on M&A, startups and venture capital financing. André advises a broad range of foreign and Canadian clients operating in various industries, including software, digital media, online commerce, financial services, retail, food & beverage and renewable energy. André represents emerging and growth stage businesses, and strategic and financial investors in and acquirers of such businesses, and he is involved in numerous local and national innovation, incubator and business accelerator initiatives. André regularly advises foreign companies investing in or establishing Canadian ventures and helps structure, negotiate and implement a variety of complex commercial contracts involving the development, licensing and acquisition of intellectual property and technology.

He has developed expertise in international joint venture transactions and has assisted clients in incorporating and investing in new ventures and related governance matters. André represents several domestic and international investment funds in connection with their Canadian activities. André’s M&A practice has a particular industry focus on (i) media, technology, and e-commerce, (ii) alternative asset funds and wealth management, and (iii) retail and consumer products.

André provides legal services to a broad range of entrepreneurs, media and technology start-ups and leading academics commercializing ground-breaking IP. He has been at the centre of some of the largest and most strategic M&A activity in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) space and has acted for several leading academics in machine learning and AI transactions with global consumer internet companies and research institutes.

Andre also plays a central role in Osler’s efforts in Rotman’s Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), Next Canada (Next AI, Next 36 & Next Founders), Peerscale & the League of Innovators.

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