Speakers 2022 Toronto

Juan Carlos Artigas, Global Head of Research World Gold Council
Juan Carlos Artigas joined the World Gold Council (WGC) in 2009 and is the Global Head of Research. He and his team focus on developing timely insights on the gold market including drivers of demand, supply, and performance as well as key attributes of gold as an investment and its role in investor portfolios.

During his tenure, Juan Carlos has reshaped the organization’s approach to research through robust and comprehensive financial analysis incorporating findings from gold physical and derivatives markets and their link to macroeconomic and geopolitical dynamics. This perspective has informed the development of WGC’s Gold Valuation Framework, an academically validated methodology for understanding gold performance.

Previously, Juan Carlos worked at JPMorgan Securities as a US and Emerging Markets fixed income strategist. In this role, he developed sovereign- and corporate-debt valuation frameworks and contributed to leading US and Emerging Markets financial publications.

Juan Carlos holds a BS in Actuarial Sciences from ITAM (Mexico) and an MBA and MS in Statistics from the University of Chicago. He was also a candidate for Doctor of Philosophy in Econometrics and Statistics from the University of Chicago.

Pat Dunwoody, Executive Director, Canadian ETF Association (CETFA)
Pat Dunwoody is a client-focused executive who brings a strategic perspective while developing quality initiatives. Her career was built on operational excellence & situational leadership while mentoring others around her.
She has spent over 30 years leading and helping organizations like Fidelity Investments, Invesco and many industry-level committees to improve their efficiencies and customer service. Currently, she is the Executive Director of the Canadian ETF Association.
She is also very involved in her community spending seven years as the Board Chair of Community Living Dufferin and is currently a Board member of Prosper Canada and QCC.
She lives in East Garafraxa (just west of Orangeville) with her husband and dog, Otis. And by the time the conference happens – she will be a grandmother.

Ahmed Farooq, Senior Vice President, Head of Retail ETF Distribution, Franklin Templeton Canada
Ahmed Farooq is Vice President – ETF Business Development, responsible for directing and expanding the Franklin LibertySharesTM ETF business across major Canadian Investment Dealers and financial professionals. Mr. Farooq has 10 years of experience in the ETF industry and 14 years in the investment industry. Prior to joining Franklin Templeton in 2017, Mr. Farooq spent 10 years at BlackRock Canada supporting the promotion and growth of iShares ETFs. Recently, Ahmed was a senior wholesaler covering Toronto and Ottawa. Previously, he managed the internal sales team for the iShares ETFs business across Canada and lead wholesaler activities in Atlantic Canada. Mr. Farooq earned his Bachelor of Commerce degree with a specialization in Commerce and Finance, and a major in Economics from the University of Toronto. He has completed the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and has earned his CIMA® designation from the Investment Management Consultants Association® in conjunction with the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Farooq has also completed the Canadian Securities Course (CSC), Conduct & Practices Handbook (CPH), Professional Financial Planning Course (PFP), Wealth Management Techniques (WMT) and has received the designation of Financial Management Advisor (FMA).  

Paulette Filion, Partner, Strategy Marketing
Paulette Filion is a partner at StrategyMarketing.ca. Paulette worked in the financial services industry for decades and possesses a deep understanding of the challenges facing the industry. Known for delivering research-based solutions, she has a reputation for being a leader who champions the role of financial advisors. Ahead of her time, recognizing the vast societal changes taking place, Paulette produced one of the most successful series of seminars for Merrill Lynch in the U.S. focusing exclusively on women. In 2001, she co-authored Marketing Financial Planning to Women with Gail Vaz-Oxlade and most recently co-authored INVEST(in)HER – The Smart Financial Advisor’s Guide to Winning Female Clients in 6 Easy Steps with her partner Judy Paradi. In November 2020, Judy and Paulette published a white paper called “Why there are so few female financial advisors: and what needs to happen to grow the numbers”.

Kevin Headland, Co-Chief Investment Strategist, Manulife Investment Management
As Co-Chief Investment Strategist, Kevin has a range of responsibilities, from market and economic analysis to investor education. He analyzes and interprets the economy and markets on behalf of Manulife Investment Management, and works with the portfolio management teams to provide clients and investment intermediaries with guidance and commentary on strategies and asset allocation weightings.
Education: Bachelor of Commerce, Finance Major, Concordia University
Joined company: 2002
Began career: 2000

Katherine Judge, Director and Senior Economist, CIBC Capital Markets
Katherine Judge is a Senior Economist at CIBC, having joined the Economics group in 2018. She forecasts and provides insightful commentary of North American economic data, and contributes to research on a wide range of topics that impact financial markets.
Prior to joining CIBC, Katherine worked in a similar role at another major Canadian bank. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Queen's University.

Allison Langley, Director of Marketing, Emerge Canada
Allison Langley is the Director of Marketing with Emerge Capital Management and its Canadian counterpart, Emerge Canada Inc. Allison joined the Emerge team officially in June of 2018, supporting advisors, attending conferences and contributing to the inception of the firm. Since then, Allison has contributed to the launch of six ETFs in Canada, the development of the Emerge EMPWR program and rebuilding the Emerge brand. Allison is also a member of the Marketing and PR Committee with the Canadian ETF Association. Prior to joining Emerge, Allison achieved a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology from Loyola University, Maryland where she was the recipient of the Presidential Scholarship. Allison also completed her marketing analytics course with E Cornell, and was Head Music Director of WLOY Loyola Radio while also being a member of the women’s rowing team.

Lisa Lake Langley, CEO/Founder, Emerge Canada
Lisa Langley is the CEO & President of Emerge Canada Inc and has over 30 years of investment management industry experience. Prior to founding Emerge, Lisa worked for over 20 years in Toronto as the President and COO of First Asset Advisory Services where she raised over a billion in assets.. She then continued on to work with the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) as the Vice President of Member Services. Following this Lisa became the Managing Director of Global Product Development for Alliance Trust in Scotland. Lisa is currently the only female majority owner of a fund / ETF company in Canada.

Kelly MacDonald, Enterprise Client Leader (Toronto/New York), Senior Vice President, AON
Kelly first joined Aon in 2004 as member of the Professional Service Group and has since served in a variety of sales leadership, business development and client advisory capacities. In her most recent role, Kelly served as the Growth Leader, Strategy and Execution for Canada’s largest region, where she supported clients and colleagues in the areas of Risk, Health and Wealth with a focus on emerging and evolving risks.
Kelly is a regular public speaker at client conferences and other professional events. She is also actively involved in mentoring programs, both internal and external to Aon, with her most recent mentoring engagement in support of the Risk Management Association (RMA Toronto), where she partnered in mentorship with senior leaders from Canada’s two largest banks.
Kelly is the co-chair of the Big Brothers Big Sisters (Toronto) Fundraising Committee, a role that she has held since 2017. She is also a member of the Women’s Executive Network Member (2014 to present), MacKay CEO Forums (2018-2020) and served as an ‘Innovator’ for the Hospital for Sick Children from 2017-2019.
She first began working in the industry in May 1997.

George Milling-Stanley, Chief Gold Strategist, State Street Global Advisors

George Milling-Stanley is Chief Gold Strategist with State Street Global Advisors. He joined SSGA as a Vice President and Head of Gold Strategy in November 2014. Before joining SSGA, George ran the independent consultancy George Milling-Stanley on Gold, LLC. He retired from the World Gold Council in 2011 after a 15-year career there. Most recently he had been responsible for all programs involving central banks, governments, and regulatory authorities. Before that, he was a key member of the small team that pioneered the development of gold-backed Exchange Traded Funds. His earlier career included six years on the precious metals trading desk of Lehman Brothers. Previously he worked for Consolidated Gold Fields in London, and before that spent 10 years as a reporter and columnist with the Financial Times. An acknowledged authority on all aspects of the gold business, George Milling-Stanley is a regular speaker at international conferences.

Jonathan Needham, Vice President & Director, Lead of ETF Distribution, TD Asset Management Inc.

Jonathan is Lead of ETF Distribution for the firm and works closely with the Wholesaling and National Accounts Teams across Canada with a focus on differentiating TD ETF offerings within the marketplace and driving market share growth. He has extensive experience in the Canadian Investment Industry in various roles, including Senior Sales Executive, Senior Marketing Executive, Sales Coach and Consultative Sales. Jonathan holds a Certificate in Human Resource Management from Sheridan College and an MBA from Lebow College of Business at Drexel University.

Julien Palardy, Managing Director, TD Asset Management Inc.

Julien is Head of the Quantitative Group Portfolio Management Team. The team is responsible for overseeing the modelling, research and management of various Quantitative strategies, including Low Volatility Equities, Passive Equities and Systematic Alpha Equities.
He previously headed the Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management Team and was Lead Portfolio Manager for firm's Systematic Alpha, Low Volatility and Low Volatility Plus funds. He has co-managed the firm’s Institutional Asset Allocation mandates, designed forecasting models for strategic and tactical asset allocation, built quantitative equity strategies for North American and Global long-only and North American market neutral funds, and built quantitative fixed income strategies for Canadian and global bond funds.
Julien holds a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Applied Financial Economics, both from HEC Montréal.

Veronika Popova, Director, ETF Strategist, CI Global Asset Management

As Director of ETF Strategy, Veronika’s primary responsibility involves working with the various departments within CI GAM to help promote the growth of the ETF business, assisting investors and advisors on ETF education and how to incorporate them into their portfolios.

Veronika brings a wealth of ETF knowledge, including product strategy, trading & liquidity, market structure, portfolio development, and has been involved in the launch of several ETFs in the Canadian marketplace.

Prior to joining CI GAM, Veronika held roles with global asset managers Vanguard and RBC GAM, where responsibilities included managing primary and secondary market ETF trading, assisting clients with trade execution, and supporting the overall operations of an ETF business.

Veronika holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) from Ryerson University and is a CFA Charterholder.

Sadeki Simpson, Financial Advisor, Edward Jones
Sadeki is a Financial Advisor in Brantford Ontario where she educate, empower, and elevate her clients thinking to create wealth to leave a legacy for intergeneration and make their money work for them so that they can live life on their terms.
She is proud winner of multiple awards; 2022 Wealth Professional award winner of the Nour Private Wealth Award "Rising Star Advisor of the Year"
Voted Reader Choice Brant "Best Investment Company" and Voted top 3 Brantford Best Financial Advisor.
She has built her business based on trust, transparency, and accountability by taking the time to get to know her clients and to learn what means the most to them.
She currently lives in Brantford with her family. An avid sports enthusiast and enjoy giving where I live and gardening.

Dave Wahl, Director, Senior Portfolio Specialist, ClearBridge Investments
David joined a predecessor organization in 2016 and has 25 years of investment industry experience. Prior to this, David was Executive Director, Sales and Marketing at Middlefield Capital Group. He was previously Managing Director, Head of Sales at CIBC Asset Management and National Sales Manager at TD Asset Management. David earned an MBA and a BA in Economics from the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Experience:

• 25 years of investment industry experience

• Joined a predecessor organization in 2016

• Middlefield Capital Group - Executive Director, Sales and Marketing

• CIBC Asset Management - Managing Director, Head of Sales

• TD Asset Management - National Sales Manager

• MBA from University of Western Ontario, Canada

• BA in Economics from University of Western Ontario, Canada

Greg Walker, Director, Capital Markets and Strategic Relationships, BMO Global Asset Management
Greg Walker is Director, Capital Markets and Strategic Relationships at BMO Global Asset Management. Before re-joining BMO, Walker was head of institutional ETF sales for Vanguard Investments Canada Inc. and global head of ETF distribution at RBC Capital Markets. He also served as executive vice-president and head of institutional and national accounts at Evolve ETFs and was head of iShares business development at BlackRock Asset Management Canada.
Greg started his career at Bank of Montreal and has held various investment roles including high yield debt analyst and portfolio manager in a fixed income investment management group specializing in credit risk assets.
Mr. Walker earned an HBA in economics and financial management from Wilfrid Laurier University. He is a CFA® charterholder and has held positions on a number of investment industry boards, including the Buy-Side Investment Management Association (BIMA) and the board of Women in Capital Markets.