Blake is the President of Hanna Consulting Services, a firm that specializes in providing senior executives with practical and pragmatic guidance on business and technology. 

Prior to establishing HCS, Blake spent 30 years in numerous leadership roles at Accenture.  He has hands-on experience in crafting, shaping, selling, negotiating, operating and terminating large/complex outsourcing arrangements in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia. Blake has served private sector clients in industries including banking, insurance, capital markets, telecommunications, energy and natural resources. His public sector experience includes large government-owned utilities, public health authorities, welfare and human services, and workplace safety / workers’ compensation agencies.  

Blake also serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in business strategy, consulting and information technology.  He obtained his Masters of Business Administration from UBC, served on the UBC Alumni Association Board, and currently serves as a Director for the Canadian Pharmacists Association.

Grant is a C-level outsourcing advisor and transformation program executive. He created R3P in 2008 as a spin-off of the infrastructure outsourcing advisory North America practice of BearingPoint/KPMG. Major current and past clients include Scotiabank, TD Bank, ING, CIBC, BMO, Chrysler Financial, Brookfield, JP Morgan Chase, Manulife, Canadian Tire, Loblaw Companies and Shoppers Drug Mart.

Grant thrives on being a change agent in large initiatives. Over the last 25 years, he has focused on large transformational initiatives; outsourcing deals, mergers & acquisitions and IT cost take-out initiatives.  All of these initiatives required strategies, stakeholder alignment, business case, negotiations, consolidation models, internal capabilities maturation and automation through the creative development and deployment of new operating models, cost models, IT models, demand/supply models, analytics, KPIs and SLAs.

Grant was also primary author of the CORE Outsourcing courses for “Strategy & Scoping” and “Transition Management”.

Grant graduated in 1991 from University of Waterloo with a BMath majoring in Computer Science and Business, with a Research Scholarship from BNR in multi-media collaboration.

Michael is the Managing Partner for Merit Outsourcing Advisors, a leading Canadian Sourcing Advisory firm. Prior to his current leadership role, he was in the outsourcing practise at Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting and IBM. His expertise is focused on developing business process and IT sourcing strategies, outsourcing deal investigation, providing transaction leadership, structuring offshore service delivery, advising clients on outsourcing re-negotiation strategies, building effective outsourcing governance and vendor management models, and services delivery optimization strategies.
 
He is an elite sourcing advisor, with a strong working knowledge of Application Management Services, Human Resources, Customer Care, Finance & Administration, Procurement/Strategic Sourcing, Information Technology Infrastructure and other business processes.
 
Michael has a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from Schulich School of Business, York University in Toronto. He is a frequent speaker at outsourcing and sourcing industry events, including: Centre for Outsourcing Research & Education (CORE), The Canadian Institute, Schulich School of Business, Project Management Institute and the Canadian IT Law Association.

Over her extensive career, Shebina Kanani has had global responsibilities with RBC and Scotiabank in her capacity as Vice President, Information Technology Outsourcing and Supplier Management.  She has developed expertise in vendor management, outsourcing, governance, IT procurement, application development management, innovation, asset management, accessibility, strategic planning, leadership development and development, and project management for mission critical systems.  

Shebina is an energetic, passionate IT leader with a solid track record of success in Financial Services.  She has a proven leadership  ability in managing and progressing people, methodologies, tools and infrastructure to capitalize on technological transformation to meet business goals. 

In addition to her impressive career accomplishments, Shebina is active on several volunteer organizations and boards. She teaches as faculty for CORE, the Centre for Outsourcing, Research & Education. She is an Accredited Outsourcing Professional (AOP). 

Shebina is a National Director for AKFC,  a member of the Board of Directors of HDIRS, enhancing patient care for over 25 hospitals, and a Board member for Ellevate Women’s Network.

An accomplished speaker, and one of CORE’s lead faculty members for the Executive Education program, as well as the former vice chair of one of Canada’s largest Credit Unions,   Raj has spent over 25 years implementing and advising on the delivery and effectiveness of large & complex initiatives and outsourcing relationships, for both private and public sector clients.

Raj has developed, and participated in the development of many outsourcing best practices including the creation of a joint Outsourcing/Shared Services Governance Model used by two of the three largest IT outsourcing services providers in the world. 

Raj leads both the Outsourcing Advisory and Vendor Optimization practices for The Whitestone Group.

Christine Knott is Managing Director at Citisoft, with over 29 years of experience in consulting and maintaining client relationships for the investment management industry. Christine supports the advisory needs of Citisoft’s global client base and is responsible for growing the North American consulting practice with a specific focus on the Canadian marketplace. She has strong analytical, mathematical, technical and project management capabilities and superior track record in creating new teams, new processes and new services.

Christine has deep understanding of the investment operations business in Canada and has broad experience across a range of investment products and asset types. Christine has excellent people management skills and is also fluent in French.

Gary is an accomplished financial professional with a proven track record of managing Operational Risk as a CFO and senior financial resource in various industries including software publishing, electronics distribution, photography and heavy duty transportation equipment.  He has developed a unique approach to managing the day to day risks encountered in these environments by applying the principles of innovation and agility. He has had the opportunity to teach these concepts in the CPA’s Enterprise Risk Management certification program.

Gary has worked over 8 years moderating the CPA’s Strategic Leadership Program, proudly mentoring CPA candidates towards the culmination of their studies with the CPA Professional designation.

Gary recently applied his financial expertise to the development of an analytical software used by accountants and bookkeepers to work with their clients to manage Operational and Financial Risk on a pro-active basis to optimize the financial results of client operations. In conjunction with this effort he has developed and delivered thought leadership presentations at financial conferences on effectively utilizing and managing risk in cloud based financial solutions.

Neil is a senior business and technology executive with over 25 years experience delivering large-scale digital transformations, governance, outsourcing, operations improvement, software and hardware implementations, and IT management for Global 1000 companies.  Neil has delivered complex digital strategies across business units and borders to drive a significantly improved customer experience for companies as well as managing globally outsourced IT applications delivery and maintenance.  Neil has lived and worked extensively in Asia (China, Japan, India), Europe (UK, Germany), the US and Canada.

 

Neil has also led major Accenture Technology business units in Canada and the US as well as leading operational performance improvement across CSA Group’s testing, inspections and certification business’ global operations.

Brett is an industry-leading outsourcing and shared services professional with over 20 years of proven experience, helping value-driven business leaders leverage outsourcing and shared services to achieve strategic advantage. He is recognized by the outsourcing and shared services community as a leader in sourcing strategy and governance.

His experience has involved multi-service Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), IT Outsourcing (ITO), and has included some of the largest and most complex outsourcing and shared services ventures ever undertaken.

During his career, Brett has been on both the sell-side of outsourcing, and the buy side of outsourcing. Currently, Brett is an Outsourcing Advisor with Deloitte.

Senior Manager, Outsourcing Advisory,  Deloitte

John is a leader in Deloitte’s Service Delivery Transformation practice.  He has supported a variety of outsourcing transactions, outsourcing strategies, business cases, funding and cost sharing models.  In addition, John has developed request for proposals (RFPs) and procurement strategies, facilitated contract negotiation, contract evaluation and service delivery improvement for managed infrastructure services, application management services, and business process outsourcing.

Prior to joining Deloitte, John spent 8 years in the IT service delivery industry, with both Hewlett-Packard and CGI.  John holds an MBA in Strategic Management from the Schulich School of Business, York University and an Honours BSc. from McMaster University.

As Director, Client Services Americas, Transition WW, IBM Cloud, Kim is responsible for the Cloud Managed Services delivery for the Americas, IBM Cloud along with onboarding global clients to the IBM Cloud platform.  

Kim has been in the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) field for over 25 years in various leadership roles including development, sales, engineering, delivery, software, managed services and outsourcing. Prior to joining IBM Canada in 2012, Kim spent 5 years with Bell Canada where she held leadership positions as Vice President of Engineering and Vice President of Program Delivery. Before being recruited to join Bell Canada, Kim spent 20 years with IBM Canada where she held leadership positions in the IBM Global Services and IBM Software division

Kim is active in the community, currently serving as past-president of York Simcoe Express AAA Hockey Association which is a 600K not for profit organization furthering minor hockey for children from 8 to 18 years of age. When not working, Kim enjoys spending time with her family at their country home in Prince Edward County.

Bill is a risk management consultant and leadership coach. His goal is to enrich the effectiveness of people and organizations, and doing it with both skill and heart.  

Bill has a rich background in the financial services industry, first with BMO and then with RBC.  The last 15 years of his banking career were spent in the field of risk management where he successfully built and led programs such as Risk and Control Assessments, Key Risk Indicators and Operational Risk Scenarios. He has also developed, and currently teaches, the Chartered Professional Accountant’s (CPA’s) Enterprise Risk Management Certification Program and the Centre of Outsourcing Research and Education’s (CORE’s) Risk Management course, among others.

As well, Bill has moderated the Certified Management Accountant’s (CMA’s) Strategic Leadership Program and has taught over 700 CMA professionals.  He continues to teach young professionals through the CPA’s new Professional Education Program and also teaches leadership courses to current practicing CPAs as part of the CPA’s professional development program.  

He is now finalizing his credentials as an associate certified coach through the International Coaching Federation and is currently coaching, and building upon his coaching practice.