Opening Remarks
Mayor Frank Scarpitti, City of Markham
Mayor Frank Scarpitti was elected as Mayor of Markham in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022.
He is Markham’s second longest-serving Mayor.
Mr. Scarpitti was first elected to Markham Council in 1985, as a Regional Councillor. In total, the people of Markham have elected him nine times. He has served on both the Councils of the City of Markham and York Region for 30 years.
Mayor Scarpitti serves on York Regional Council and is the current Chair of York Region Rapid Transit Corporation (VIVA Transit). He is also Co-Chair of the Community Partnership Council, Vice-Chair of Transportation Services for York Region, and sits on the Board of Directors for York Telecom Network.
He serves as a member on the Alectra board, one of the largest municipally-owned electrical utilities in North America.
Mayor Scarpitti gives his time to a number of non-profit organizations related to health, social programs, arts, and culture. As Co-Chair of Markham Stouffville Hospital’s Capital Campaign, his efforts contributed to surpassing the hospital's $50 million fundraising goal.
He led Markham’s initiative to secure the Markham Pan Am Centre and attract a Markham campus for York University.
He is a strong advocate of Internet voting, used in Markham since 2003.
Mayor Scarpitti and his wife Nancy have three children.
Emily Mo, Director, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Toronto)
Emily joined the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China in 2001 as a member of the Administrative Officer Grade. In December 2018, she took up the Director post in the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Toronto, the mandate of which is to foster closer economic trade ties between Canada and Hong Kong, and also promote bilateral cultural relations and people-to-people ties.
Before that, she had worked in different offices, including the Home Affairs Department, the then Environment, Transport and Works Bureau, the Security Bureau, the University Grants Committee Secretariat, and the Tourism Commission of the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau.
Before coming to Toronto, Emily served as the Deputy Head of the Human Resources Planning and Poverty Co-ordination Unit under the Chief Secretary for Administration’s Private Office to support the Chief Secretary for Administration for monitoring the implementation progress of policy initiatives on human resources planning and poverty alleviation in Hong Kong.
Emily received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Hong Kong.
Jason
Reeve joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 1999.
During
his time at headquarters, he was a Business Development Officer in the Team
Canada
Division (1999 - 2003), Program Manager in the Greater China Division (2003
-
2006), Parliamentary Liaison Officer in the Afghanistan Task Force (2006 -
2007) and
Chief
of Staff and Executive Advisor to the ADM International Business Development
and
Chief Trade Commissioner (2013 - 2014). Positions overseas included Taipei
(2009
-
2013) where he served as Director of General Relations, Brasilia (2014 - 2018)
as
Counsellor
(Commercial/Economic) and Beijing (2018 - 2021) as Counsellor
(Commercial)
and Senior Trade Commissioner, Deputy Head of Mission and Senior
Trade
Commissioner in Shanghai (2021-2022).
Jason currently serves as Consul
and Senior Trade Commissioner at the Consulate General of Canada in Hong Kong in
Sep. 2022.
Panel Discussion I - Emerging Technologies
Nafis Ahmed joined York University in 2020 after spending 5 years with the Legal Innovation Zone at Ryerson University - the world's first incubator dedicated to legal tech. Nafis is a driven leader with a strong background in developing entrepreneurial ecosystems, fueling startup growth, and building communities and has supported startups in various stages of their development across the GTA tech community.
Previous to the Legal Innovation Zone, Nafis was part of the operations team at The DMZ, and was also a Co-Founder of NuLens Innovation, using entrepreneurial frameworks to facilitate innovation projects and initiatives. He is deeply involved in startup and social innovation initiatives through his volunteer activities and is passionate about supporting individuals to pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations.
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Dennis Dos Santos is a multi-faceted business executive with engineering experience in technology product development, financial experience as a capital markets professional, and executive leadership roles in several companies. These roles have had demanding mandates, from mission-critical control systems to multinational M&A transactions to being a key part of management teams leading companies to successful exits.
As an engineer he received the CP Rail customer service award; as a capital market professional he was a number one ranked technology analyst; as an executive, he was CFO and member of the Board of Directors during Reddwerks Corp’s sale to Dematic Corporation.
Frank Harley has worked for 20 years in Asia in private equity and cleantech. Born and raised in Vancouver, after his graduate degree in Transportation and Logistics from UBC, he moved to Hong Kong to work for AIF Capital -managing private equity investments in infrastructure and growth capital in SE Asia and India. He then joined a start-up electric 3-wheeler company Kyto Green Technologies focusing on SE Asia, which led him into the world of batteries.
Since 2021, he has been the CFO of GRST (Green Renewable Sustainable Energy), a Hong Kong lithium-ion battery technology and materials company. GRST uses water-based production to make batteries, which are cleaner, cheaper, and more recyclable.
Frank is now based in Vancouver with the goal of bringing this technology to the emerging North American battery supply chain.
Panel Discussion II - Global Expansion
Carmen Lam helps companies address performance and ambition gaps by leveraging technology and people to develop purpose-driven and adaptable teams that support the company's strategy. She works across cultures and functions to help organizations and individuals find their optimal positioning, develop the most advantageous and agile approach, and align organizational culture with strategy and customer experience to achieve a competitive edge.
Stephen Poon, M.Sc. (Computer Science), is Korah's Co-Founder and CTO. He is a seasoned specialist in streamlining business processes by hyper-automation. Earlier in his career, he served in the DB2 development team at the IBM Toronto Software Lab, where he worked on the latest industry advancements.
In 2011, Stephen co-founded Korah to apply the 'right-sized' technology to address customers' business challenges, including operational efficiency and user experience. In 2017, using natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning technology, he led his team to build ccRobot.ai - an enterprise CX hub designed to automate repetitive customer dialogues in chat and voice channels. ccRobot.ai public sector clients include Service Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the Ontario Government, and various Canadian municipal governments.
Before Korah, Stephen gained decades of experience working at major corporations, including IBM Canada, Bell Canada, CGI Canada, Bank of Montreal, Moneris Solutions, and EDS Hong Kong.
Sagar Satish is the Senior Director of Engineering Canada for Astera Labs where he works on connectivity and memory ASICs. He also serves as the site manager for Astera Labs’ R&D facility in Markham, Ontario.
Prior to Astera Labs, Satish was the founder and CEO of Chipmonk Consulting, a semiconductor design services firm. He also previously held engineering roles at Qualcomm, CMC Electronics, and AMD.
Closing Remarks
Ivan Lam, P.Eng., has served across technology-based industries in Canada, Greater China, and Southeast Asia. Currently the Vice President of Exploratory and Industry Technology Solutions at Lenovo PCCW Solutions, Ivan is leading the development of disruptive technology solutions in helping organizations transform their operations for enhanced competitiveness. Prior to his current role, Ivan was the Head of Strategy at the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute.
Ivan is serving as the Co-chair of the Innovation Committee at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, a Regional Ambassador of the University of Toronto Engineering, and a Mentor for the Incubation Program at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and an MBA from the Kellogg-HKUST Executive MBA program.
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Christopher Chen is the head of the InvestHK presence for Canada, responsible for driving foreign direct investment from Canadian companies, organisations, and educational institutions to Hong Kong and Asia Pacific.
Prior to InvestHK, he was a senior fintech professional, leading growth marketing and customer engagement initiatives for multinational insurance and asset management companies throughout Canada, Europe, and Asia.
He has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, The Netherlands, and Scotland. He has a Master's degree from the University of British Columbia with post-graduate fellowships at the National Taiwan Normal University and Yusof Ishak Institute/ISEAS.
Chris Rickett is a proud public servant and civic innovator with a keen interest in urban planning,
economic development, and community-building. His past vocations include municipal councillor, environmental planner, eco-business zone creator, publisher, magician, punk rock concert promoter, taxi driver, and community rabble-rouser.
Recognized as one of Toronto Life’s Most Influential Torontonians during the pandemic, Chris has been recognized for his work to save and revitalize Canada’s main streets through programs he developed and delivered, including Digital Main Street and My Main Street. Chris holds a Bachelor of Environmental Studies with Honours in Planning from the University of Waterloo and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Western Ontario, both of which he completed while serving as a municipal councillor in the City of Stratford, Ontario.
Currently, Chris is the Director of Economic Growth, Culture and Entrepreneurship at the City of Markham, where he leads a team of dedicated public servants focused on community-building and growing Canada’s second-largest technology cluster.
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