Join us in Ottawa, October 20-22, 2024. Learn best practices to fight fraud, explore emerging trends, hear from inspiring speakers, network and more.
As the country’s Capital, Ottawa offers visitors a wealth of quintessentially Canadian experiences. Visit Parliament Hill, the seat of Canada’s national government, or the stately home and gardens of the Governor General, the Queen’s representative in Canada.
Ottawa museums and galleries invite visitors to experience the best of Canada all in one place. The National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canadian War Museum and the Royal Canadian Mint, along with many others, will be sure to satisfy any interest.
From quiet and intimate to busy and happening, there’s something for everyone, with lots of options for entertainment. Visit Ottawa Tourism to start planning your visit to Ottawa.
The 2024 ACFE Fraud Conference Canada attracts more than 250 professionals involved in identifying, preventing and detecting corporate fraud. Sponsoring this conference provides an unparalleled opportunity to connect with decision-makers and influencers in the anti-fraud world.
For information on sponsoring or advertising, email Sponsorships@ACFE.com.
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Mark Bowden
Body Language ExpertAuthor of Globe and Mail bestseller Truth & Lies: What People are Really Thinking
Mark Bowden is a body language expert and author of the Globe and Mail Canadian bestseller Truth & Lies: What People are Really Thinking. Inspiring, energetic, engaging and entertaining, Bowden’s memorable talks and training programs not only educate but have proven life-changing for audiences and clients.
A go-to commentator for world media on the body language of leading politicians and public figures, Bowden appears regularly on news and talk shows for CNN, CTV, CBC, Global and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and GQ Magazine.
Henry Tso, CPA, CGA, CFF
Director, Investigative and Forensic Services, MNP
Henry Tso is a Director in MNP’s Vancouver office where he is a senior member of MNP’s Investigative and Forensic Services team in British Columbia. Tso focuses on the investigation of issues related to money laundering, fraud, corruption and conflict of interest, and the resolution of financial disputes. He also provides clients with compliance and risk management services in the area of anti-money laundering, anti-corruption and fraud prevention.
Tso has more than 25 years of experience in money laundering and financial crime investigations. Prior to joining MNP, he was the vice president of investigative services at the Insurance Bureau of Canada and retired as a superintendent and officer in charge with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, where he led and managed complex financial investigations for the Province of Ontario and British Columbia. He is recognized by the courts, the media and his peers as an expert in financial crime investigations and money laundering.
Ray Boisvert
Associate Partner, Security, IBM Canada
Ray Boisvert has a deep background in national security, as well as his varied experiences in consulting within the realm of corporate risk. At the outset of his career, and after five years in federal policing with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Boisvert joined the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in 1984 and retired in 2012 as the assistant director. During his tenure, Boisvert was involved in all aspects of security intelligence operations, such as the leadership of the intelligence assessment directorate, counter-terrorism, as well as driving national security priorities of operational risk, data exploitation and covert operations.
Chris Mathers
Corporate Intelligence Expert
Chris Mathers has spent most of his adult life working undercover for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Customs Service. He writes about his experiences posing as a gangster, a drug trafficker and a money launderer in his book, CRIME SCHOOL: Money Laundering.
At the time of his retirement from the RCMP, Mathers was the senior undercover operator at the Proceeds of Crime Section where he established and operated a number of “storefront” money laundering businesses targeting Colombian, Russian and Asian organized crime groups.
In 1995, Mathers joined the forensic division of KPMG. In 1999, he was appointed president of KPMG Corporate Intelligence Inc. In 2004, Chris established CHRIS MATHERS INC., which provides crime and risk consulting services.
Diana Kelley
Cybersecurity Field CTO, Microsoft
Diana Kelley is the Cybersecurity Field CTO for Microsoft and a cybersecurity architect, executive advisor and author. At Microsoft she leverages her 25+ years of cyber risk and security experience to provide advice and guidance to CSOs, CIOs and CISOs at some of the world’s largest companies and is a contributor the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR). She was the Global Executive Security Advisor at IBM Security where she built and managed the IBM Security Research Community Newsroom process and was a regular contributor to IBM X-Force research. She is a faculty member with IANS Research, Industry Mentor at the CyberSecurity Factory, and guest lecturer at Boston College’s Master of Science in Cybersecurity program. Kelley serves on the Board of Directors at Sightline Security, the RSA US Program Committee for 2018 and 2019, was an IEEE “Rock Star of Risk” in 2016, keynotes frequently at major conferences and co-authored the book Cryptographic Libraries for Developers.
Michael Ferguson, CPA, CA, FCA (New Brunswick)
Auditor General of Canada
Michael Ferguson was appointed Auditor General of Canada on November 28, 2011. Prior to this appointment, he served in a variety of roles in the government of New Brunswick, including five years as comptroller, five years as Auditor General of New Brunswick and one year as Deputy Minister of Finance and Secretary to the Board of Management.
Valérie Ouellet
Senior Data Journalist, CBC
Valérie Ouellet is CBC's senior data journalist in Toronto. She was part of the team who investigated the massive Paradise Papers leak of tax-haven records. Her recent work also includes uncovering large-scale ticket scalping, investigating questionable inmate deaths and documenting a rise of violence in nursing homes. She has been nominated for awards by both the Canadian Association of Journalists and the Fédération professionelle des journalistes du Québec. She teaches data journalism at Humber College and Ryerson University. Valérie has a master's of journalism from the University of King's College in Halifax.
Joanna Gualtieri
Whistleblower, Canada Department of Foreign Affairs
Joanna Gualtieri was a pioneer in the whistleblowing movement in Canada, advocating that honest employees must have the right to speak out about workplace wrongdoing that threatens the public interest.
In the 1990s, Gualtieri worked as an analyst at Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs. She identified what she believed to be systemic and widespread abuse of public monies for extravagant offshore diplomatic residences in violation of federal laws and policies and costing taxpayers billions of dollars. Unwilling to turn a blind eye, Gualtieri brought suit against the government to hold it accountable. In a landmark case spanning over a decade, Gualtieri fought for greater integrity, accountability and whistleblower rights. She was asked to sit on the Board of the Government Accountability Project (GAP) — the world’s leading whistleblower organization — in Washington, D.C. and founded Canada’s first whistleblower organization the Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform (FAIR). Gualtieri drafted federal whistleblower legislation and testified numerous times to Parlimentary and Senate committees.
Currently, Gualtieri is developing TIP (The Integrity Principle), a project to educate and embolden young people about the indispensable role of integrity in vocational life by engaging them in real-life stories of ordinary people living integrity in action.
Zach Dubinsky
Senior Writer, CBC Investigations Unit
Zach Dubinsky is a journalist with CBC's national investigative unit in Toronto. He was part of the international media team that reported on the Paradise Papers and Panama Papers leaks. He previously worked for the CBC investigative program The Fifth Estate and has contributed to most of the major newspapers in Canada. When not chasing down tax dodgers, his areas of expertise include organized crime, political corruption and the courts.
Joseph Grmovsek*
Guest Speaker: Convicted Insider Trader*
A former lawyer in Ontario, Joseph Grmovsek is Canada’s first and only individual to receive a criminal conviction and sentence of imprisonment for illegal insider trading activities. He was incarcerated for close to three years in stays that included two maximum security prisons.
*The ACFE does not compensate convicted insider traders.
Chris Rosetti, CFE, CPA/CFF
Owner, Chris J. Rosetti, CFE, CPA
Christopher Rosetti is a forensic accounting/fraud investigator, working with various private and public entities in the resolution of contentious and litigious fraud matters. Rosetti has authored a number of fraud-related articles, has been featured in numerous newspaper articles and television segments, including CNBC. He has testified as an expert witness on many occasions, and has given hundreds of fraud-related presentations internationally. He serves as a member of the ACFE’s faculty, and teaches regularly at workshops and has presented at 10 of the ACFE’s Global Fraud Conferences on a variety of fraud-related subjects. He also served as the Chairman of the ACFE’s Education Committee, and the ACFE Foundation, developed a self-study course and training curriculum for the ACFE, and was an instructor for the CFE Exam Review Course.
Conal Archer, CFE
Fraud, Investigation and Risk Management, IRISS Corp.
Conal Archer specializes in the detection and investigation of fraud, misappropriation, work-place harassment, loss prevention, anti-bribery and corruption, and risk management consulting. His experience includes a career as an Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer and as a senior manager at the professional services firm of EY.
Archer was a member of the RCMP for more than 24 years. He has extensive experience in both provincial, federal and first nations policing and has served Canadians on detachment in Alberta, Manitoba, and had special assignments with major event security in Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia. He spent more than 10 years in federal policing, including assignments in Calgary commercial crime section, federal and serious organized crime, national security and VIP protective services.
Daimon Geopfert
Principal, National Leader of Security and Privacy Risk Consulting, RSM US LLP
Daimon Geopfert focuses on penetration testing, vulnerability and risk management, security monitoring, incident response, digital forensics and investigations, and compliance frameworks within heavily regulated industries. He has more than 20 years of experience in a wide array of information security disciplines. Geopfert serves as the firm’s national leader for the security, privacy and risk practice, responsible for the development of the firm’s overall strategy related to security, privacy, risk services and applicable methodologies, and tool kits and engagement documentation.
Elizabeth Simon, CFE, CPA
Director, Ethics and Compliance, Cox Communications, Inc.ACFE Regent
Elizabeth Simon, CFE, CPA, is the director of ethics and compliance for Cox Communications Inc. She’s responsible for managing the ethics hotline and overseeing ethics-related investigations, conducting compliance risk assessments and ensuring that Cox is complying with the laws and regulations relevant to the company. She also oversees the company’s Records and Information Management Program and leads other compliance-related projects.
Simon previously served as the senior internal auditor for Kimberly-Clark in Roswell, Georgia, with responsibility for developing data analytics around the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and for other internal audits. Prior to that, she was in Kimberly-Clark’s Global Security department at which she managed the anti-fraud program and investigated both internal and external fraud.
Jean-Charles Plante, CFE, CPA, CA-IFA, CFF
Vice President, RSM Canada
Jean-Charles (JC) Plante is a vice president in the litigation and valuation services group of RSM Canada, providing forensic accounting, investigation and loss quantification services to businesses impacted by expropriations, commercial disputes, class actions and commercial insurance claims. He also assists legal counsel in quantifying damages in personal injury, matrimonial and other litigation. Prior to joining the firm, Plante worked in the forensic, dispute and valuation services teams at several national accounting firms. He has also spoken on issues surrounding fraud, commercial disputes, insurance claims and personal injury at several conferences and provided litigation support on matters before several federal and provincial courts, government enquiries, tribunals, commissions and arbitrations.
David Common
Host and Correspondent, CBC News
David Common is a host of Marketplace and a correspondent with The National. You'll also see and hear him guest-hosting and contributing to multiple CBC News programs.
As part of the investigative team at Marketplace, he’s gone as far as the backstreets in pursuit of phone scammers targeting Canadians, tackled questionable sales practices in Canada’s funeral homes, located the source of a potential poison inserted into children’s jewelry at factories in China and dived into the problem of food waste in Canadian supermarkets.
Marie Dyck, CFE
Director, Fraud Risk Management, Equitable Bank
Marie Dyck is the director of fraud risk management at Equitable Bank, Canada’s 9th largest Schedule I bank. A Certified Fraud Examiner and a private investigator, she has worked in multiple aspects of financial fraud prevention and fraud loss mitigation for more than 25 years with specific expertise in mortgages, e-commerce, credit cards and debit/point-of-sale. Before joining Equitable Bank, Dyck managed all aspects of mortgage fraud management at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Prior to that, she worked in a variety of fraud-related roles at Royal Bank, including leading both credit card fraud and debit fraud operations functions. Dyck founded and continues to be an active participant on the Fraud Prevention Committee at Mortgage Professionals Canada. She currently sits on several Canadian Bankers’ Association Committees. Dyck has been a regular lecturer at the Canadian Police College for more than 14 years and has had the opportunity to present at many law enforcement, government and financial industry events. Dyck actively participates in industry-based initiatives focused on working together to prevent fraud.
Marc Tassé, CPA, CA, CFF, CICA
Senior Instructor, Canadian Centre of Excellence for Anti-Corruption
Marc Tassé is an investigative and forensic accountant, and an internationally renowned subject matter expert in the fields of anti-bribery and anti-corruption, anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism.
A seasoned, award-winning lecturer at the MBA level and an ISO 37001 academic expert, Tassé is also considered one of Canada’s leading experts on ethics and governance.
A frequent media commentator and speaker at conferences, Tassé has published extensively in Canada and abroad, and has been quoted in prestigious publications such as The Wall Street Journal.
Norman DeBoer, CFE
Police Officer, Waterloo Regional Police Service
Norman DeBoer has been a member of the Waterloo Regional Police Service for the past 29 years and is currently in rural patrol. He was in the major fraud branch for 14 years investigating major frauds. Prior to joining the fraud branch he was a divisional fraud officer and a tactical officer on the emergency response team.
Jordan Deering
Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
Jordan Deering is a litigation partner with Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, practicing in Calgary. Over the past 18 years, her practice has focused on all aspects of fraud, bribery, corruption, white-collar crime and investigations. She acts for victims of Ponzi schemes, mortgage fraud, employee theft and other fraud schemes. Deering provides advice to her clients respecting compliance with and investigations pertaining to the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act. She is regularly called upon by clients to assist in developing fraud and corruption prevention policies and programs, including whistleblower programs, compliance officer training and risk assessment.
Bruce Dorris, J.D., CFE, CPA
President and CEO, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
Bruce Dorris is the President and Chief Executive Officer for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). He also serves as an advisory member to the ACFE Board of Regents. Dorris has conducted anti-fraud training for the United Nations, the American Bankers Association, colleges and universities around the world, as well as with the FBI, GAO and other federal and state law enforcement agencies in the U.S. Dorris has been with the ACFE for 11 years, previously serving as Vice President and Program Director, and is proud to be involved in the continued growth and professional direction of the world’s largest anti-fraud organization.
Prior to joining the ACFE, Dorris earned his Juris Doctor from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University in 1993 and is licensed to practice law in state and federal courts in Texas and Louisiana. He served as a prosecutor in Louisiana for 13 years, focusing primarily on financial crime investigations.
Ryan Duquette, CFE
Partner, Security and Privacy Risk Consulting, RSM Canada
Ryan Duquette focuses on litigation support, cyber-incident response, privacy and technology risks, digital forensics and cyberfraud matters. Duquette has been an investigator for more than 20 years and was previously a police officer focusing on cybercrime and fraud cases. Duquette works closely with clients involved in workplace investigations and civil litigation matters including intellectual property theft, human resources investigation and data breaches.
He is a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto teaching digital forensics and is a former director for the Toronto chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. He has been qualified as an expert witness on numerous occasions, and is a frequent presenter at fraud, digital forensics, cybersecurity and investigative conferences worldwide.
Sandy Boucher, CFE
Senior Investigator, Grant Thornton LLP
Sandy Boucher is a seasoned investigator with 34 years of experience in both the public and private sectors. Starting his career with the Royal Hong Kong Police, where he worked for more than 12 years attaining the rank of superintendent, Boucher specialized in Asian organized crime, narcotics and criminal investigations. During his time with the force, he received both commissioners and commanding officer’s commendations, as well as commendations from eight overseas police forces including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). He managed and conducted a broad range of high-level global investigations, including several that involved corruption during this period.
Boucher came to Canada and the private sector in 1995 and now specializes in fraud and corruption investigations, background due diligence enquiries, asset tracing and recovery. He has led and conducted a wide range of investigations, including a number of high-level corruption probes, and has testified around the globe in both civil and criminal courts. In 2003, Boucher was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal for Community Service.
Since 2009, he has worked in the forensic group of Grant Thornton LLP. Sandy’s practice includes conducting large complex investigations and helping companies to prevent and detect corruption and fraud. As part of his practice, Sandy manages the Grant Thornton CARE (Confidential Anonymous Reporting for Employees) whistleblowing program and is a regular speaker on issues relating to whistleblowers and whistleblower systems.
Emily Wilson, CFE
VP of Research, Terbium Labs
Emily Wilson is the VP of Research at Terbium Labs, a dark web intelligence company. Wilson directs Terbium's strategic research programs, where she focuses on the dark web, the criminal economy for personal information and stolen payment cards, and the increasing overlap between fraud and cybercrime. Before her current role, she served as director of analysis at Terbium Labs, where she managed Terbium’s operational analysis team in identifying and investigating sensitive client data on the dark web. Wilson is a Certified Fraud Examiner, a regular guest on industry shows like "The Cyberwire Podcast", and frequently speaks at conferences, industry events, and trainings.
Thi Nguyen, CA, CPA, CFF
Manager, Business Management, CN Rail
Thi Nguyen is a senior manager – business management of CN Rail, where she is responsible for spending and compliance audits in the operations function. The operations function is responsible for running trains and manages more than 18,000 employees with $212 million in spending, excluding payroll. Nguyen also assists other functions to establish policies and processes as well as coaching and training field personnel.
Jean Turnbull, CFE, CFCI
VP Strategies, Solutions and Innovation, Financial Crimes & Fraud Management Group, TD Bank Group
Jean Turnbull is based in Toronto, Ontario, where the parent company for TD Bank and TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank (TDAMCB) operates. Turnbull leads a team charged with developing and actioning the strategy to address TD's fraud maturity in the current and future fraud threat landscape, formulating strategies and designing innovative solutions to ensure TD is well positioned to detect and mitigate fraud across the enterprise.
Turnbull has also worked with two other Canadian banks in more progressively senior roles. She spent more than ten years with Mastercard Worldwide. Her most recent role prior to departing for TD was as VP, Identity Solutions, Enterprise Security Solutions. This role included leading development and commercialization of consumer-focused biometric and digital identity solutions for Mastercard's North American, Latin American, Caribbean and Asia-Pacific markets. She also served as Director, Customer Security and Risk Services, with a mandate to lead a team that monitored global security trends, identified fraud prevention opportunities and conducted risk assessments for regional initiatives amongst other priorities. During her 15+ year career with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Turnbull quickly rose through the ranks in more senior roles that included enterprise risk, fraud operations, loss prevention, investigations, card product strategy and compliance roles.
Brian Jacob
Special Agent, FBI
Speaker biography coming soon.
Bret Hood, CFE
Director, 21st Century Learning & Consulting
After serving 25 years as a Special Agent in the FBI, Michael “Bret” Hood became a member of the ACFE faculty as well as an adjunct professor of forensic accounting for the University of Virginia and Mt. St. Mary’s University. During his tenure with the FBI, Hood worked many complex financial crime, money laundering, corruption and major cases such as the 9/11 terrorist attack, the HealthSouth fraud and the Maricopa Investments case.
Since 2000, Hood has been a master facilitator who has traveled the world teaching public- and private- sector employees how to develop effective anti-fraud, anti-bribery, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering programs. He has published articles in Fraud Magazine, Compliance and Ethics Professional Magazine and ACAMS Today.
Roanne Levitt
Senior Security Manager, Commercial Strategy, Nuance Communications, Inc
Passionate for technology that transforms lives, Roanne Levitt has spent more than 30 years innovating, developing and productizing disruptive software products.
In her current role, Levitt is responsible for commercial security strategy at Nuance Communications, defining its biometric, authentication and fraud strategy. Prior to joining Nuance, Levitt led development support and quality assurance for Softimage/Microsoft. She then became vice president of R&D at Engenuity Technologies with a mandate to turn around the company. Five years later, the company’s stock was trading at a 12-fold price increase, leading to its acquisition by CAE. Her next venture was a start-up she founded called Perceive Solutions, specializing in passive voice biometrics. Four years after its inception, her company was acquired by VoiceTrust. Levitt obtained a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from McGill University, and a master of science degree in computer science from Concordia University.
Dan McKenzie
Principal Solution Architect, SAS
Dan McKenzie has more than 15 years’ experience in fraud and AML and more than 25 years’ experience in financial services. McKenzie has helped countless customers solve their financial crimes challenges, in banking, insurance and government.
McKenzie started out his career in IT, then moved to the business side to help business units implement technology. He moved into financial crimes when consulting at TD Bank on their AML implementation. From there McKenzie joined SAS and was the fraud lead for Canada. He departed SAS for 5 years and gained further experience with TransUnion as director of fraud and ID management and then moved to Royal Bank of Canada as enterprise fraud strategist.
Kathy Macdonald
Cybersecurity and Fraud Prevention Expert Author of Cybercrime: Awareness, Prevention, and Response
Kathy Macdonald is a former police officer with almost three decades of investigative and crime prevention experience. She possesses extensive experience developing and delivering cyber awareness and crime prevention programs for public and private sector organizations. Macdonald’s areas of expertise include online fraud, social engineering, online abuse, social media, cyber bullying, targeted intrusions and privacy protection.
Macdonald instructs cybercrime prevention and personnel security at the University of Calgary. She also works as an associate with Toddington International, where she conducts open source investigations. The Governor General of Canada invested Macdonald with the Member of the Order of Merit of the Police Forces (M.O.M.), in recognition for her longstanding commitment to cybercrime prevention and awareness. Her new book, Cybercrime: Awareness, Prevention, and Response, is the first comprehensive Canadian resource on how cybercrime affects individuals, businesses, governments, institutions and organizations.
Simon Padgett, CFE, CPA, CGA, FCCA (UK)
Director, DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc
Simon Padgett is a CFE, a British ACCA Accountant with a Canadian CPA and an MBA from Oxford. He is passionate about assisting companies to be more effective and efficient with the resources they have and has more than 25 years of experience in forensic accounting and fraud and corruption investigations, anti-fraud programs and anti-money laundering as well as holding positions of head of internal audit, risk management and corporate governance.
Padgett is currently a Board Director and Director of Forensic Services at DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc, a Canadian company quoted on the TSX. Prior to this he has held positions of head of audit, risk and compliance for a major banking and money exchange group in Bahrain and London, head/director of forensic services for PwC in Vancouver, Canada and head/director of forensic services at Protiviti in the United Arab Emirates. Previously Padgett has held positions of head of internal audit, risk management and forensic services for large public companies and for one of the UAE's largest group of companies. He has worked for the Big 4 accountancy firms including 6 years at Ernst & Young in South Africa and KPMG in the Caribbean region.
John Colthart
Vice President, Growth, MindBridge Ai
John Colthart joined MindBridge Ai in March 2017 in a newly created role, Vice President of Growth, a role designed to shape and execute the journey from marketing to buying that customers embark on in implementing AI. Before MindBridge Ai, Colthart spent his near two-decade career in technology, leading world-class sales and professional services organizations. This started after his departure as a finance and accounting practitioner in 2000 to help grow a startup to 425+ employees and exit to IBM in 2010. During his stay at IBM, Colthart held global roles including running sales enablement, offering management and design, all within the IBM Analytics division. He strives to lead clients to effectively use analytics to change the course of their business.
Vincent Denault, LL.M., CFE
Lecturer, Department of Communication, Université de Montréal
Vincent Denault is a lawyer and CFE. His practice and research focus is on nonverbal communication, credibility assessment and deception detection. He is also research assistant at the Communication and Health Research Center of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), PhD student and lecturer at the Department of communication of the Université de Montréal, co-director of the Center for Studies in Nonverbal Communication Sciences of the Montreal Mental Health University Institute Research Center and an author.
James D. Ruotolo, CFE
Director, Products and Marketing for Fraud and Security Intelligence, SAS
James Ruotolo is the Director of Industry consulting with SAS where he helps financial services companies deploy analytics for AML, Fraud, Risk and Customer Intelligence. Previously, he served as the Director of Products and Marketing for Fraud and Security Intelligence solutions at SAS. In this role, he was responsible for leading product management, product marketing and customer programs for the global fraud and security intelligence solution portfolio.
Before joining SAS, he was the Director of SIU Strategic Operations for the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) for The Hartford Financial Services Group, where he built an analytical and intelligence operation within the SIU.
He is a Certified Fraud Examiner and an internationally recognized public speaker with a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and a Master’s degree in Economic Crime Management.
Denis Chalifour, CFE, CPA, CA, CA-IFA
Owner, Denis Chalifour
Denis Chalifour is a compliance practitioner who developed an expertise in governance, risk management and compliance programs with respect to fraud, corruption, collusion and other financial crimes. Chalifour provides forensic accounting investigative services with particular focus on fraud prevention, detection and investigation, as well as litigation-support services.
He has conducted a number of investigations to assist clients concerned with suspicions or allegations of fraud, corruption, noncompliance with company policies, financial statements fraud, fraudulent acts committed by members of management or employees and the misappropriation of assets. He also assisted in engagements relating to disputes with employees, shareholders, suppliers or business partners.
Laurent Colombant
Business Development Manager, Fraud & Security Intelligence, SAS Europe
Laurent Colombant has been helping customers tackle financial crime using natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML) and analytics since 1999. After focusing on sanctions screening, anti-money laundering, payment fraud and terrorist-cell financing, he is now working to address continuous controls monitoring. This includes peer-to-peer, travel and expense, know your supplier and insider-fraud modus operandi.
Before joining SAS, Colombant worked on sanctions screening and halt of business for Tier 1 banks using lexical AI. He was the General Manager of the Belgian a subsidiary of Temenos and specialized in scanning and checking SWIFT messages.
He holds an M.B.A. in finance from the University of Michigan and a joint degree in linguistics, econometrics and computing from the University of Montreal.
Yannick Gagnon
Investigator, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Phil Enright
President and CEO, ClearView Strategic Partners Inc.
Phil Enright is President and CEO of ClearView Strategic Partners Inc., a Canadian organization that provides a best-in-class ethics reporting and whistleblower solution to many private and public sector organizations of all sizes. Enright’s dedication and deep understanding of the needs of Canadian organizations informs all of ClearView’s services. He is one of the original designers and developers of ClearView Connects™, and has been with ClearView for almost 20 years. Enright brings to ClearView more than 30 years of marketing and account management experience in the corporate communications and technology fields.
Caroline Lass, CFE, CIA
Lawyer, Advisory Services, EY
Caroline Lass is a strategy, risk management, financial crimes, governance and compliance professional with more than 20 years of experience. She has managed and supported senior executives working in operational, financial, compliance and fraud risks in various industries, including banking, financial services, securities, insurance, automotive, energy, mining, transportation, aerospace and pharmaceutical.
Lass has a wide range of international expertise, including comprehensive regulatory knowledge and sound framework design and implementation to manage risks. Lass is driven to improve process efficiency while generating substantial cost savings and to deliver on strategy with strategic imperatives and actions that are monitored by key performance indicators (KPI).
Paul McEwen, CFE, CPA, CA, CBV
President, McEwen Valuation & Forensic
Paul McEwen is a qualified forensic and investigative accountant, and business and economic loss evaluator with more than 30 years of professional experience. In dispute-related matters, he has given evidence and his expertise has been accepted over 30 times in a variety of courts and tribunals in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. McEwen has testified in court on numerous occasions on cases involving corporate malfeasance and employee misappropriation, as well as financial accounting matters.
From 2005 to 2014, he led EY’s British Columbia Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services practice. In June 2014, McEwen established McEwen Valuation & Forensic, a firm focused on forensic and investigative accounting and business valuation applied in a dispute context.
Gerrard McGeachy, CFE, CFCS, CIPP/C/E
McGeachy Law Professional Corporation
Gerry McGeachy is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer. He has been involved in the enforcement of criminal and regulatory law for more than 20 years as a crown attorney and senior enforcement counsel with the Ontario Securities Commission. His law practice is dedicated to defending during regulatory investigations and enforcement proceedings, and to helping companies and individuals proactively manage their compliance risks, thereby avoiding regulatory sanctions and reputational loss. He has a keen interest in emerging and disruptive technology, and all the potential risks and rewards it brings.
Mark McManus, CFE, CAMS, CTDP, MEd
Chief Solutions Officer, GHLC Inc.
Mark McManus is the chief solutions officer at GHLC Inc., which provides strategic advisory services that include workplace training, corporate governance and strategy, and key-person coaching. McManus is a Certified Fraud Examiner, a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist and a Certified Training and Development Professional. He earned a master’s of education degree, specializing in workplace learning and organization transformation from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He combines his acumen, expertise and experience with Canadian financial firms, a provincial securities regulator, a Canadian global IT firm, and the Canadian Forces Reserve to help organizations solve some of the complex problems they face.
Basil Orsini, CFE, CIA, CRMA, CGAP
Basil Orsini, now retired, has more than 35 years' experience in large federal organizations, mainly in the field of internal audit. His work experiences involved programs serving Canadians through social spending, revenue collection and government operations. He shares his lessons learned in the areas of health, employment training, taxation, acquisition and real estate, Aboriginal programs and housing. He also worked in a large auditing firm. Orsini held volunteer positions with the ACFE and the Institute of Internal Auditors, where he has published articles and made presentations at conferences on a variety of subjects. He is active in the areas of fraud investigation and internal audit.
Scott Porter, CPA, CA, DIFA, CFF
Senior Investigator, Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario
Scott Porter has been a senior investigator of professional conduct at CPA Ontario for the past 12 years, where he conducts numerous interviews with CPAs alleged of committing professional misconduct, including fraud. Prior to that, Porter served as a manager with PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ forensic accounting group for eight years.
Porter co-authored the article Teaching Interviewing Techniques to Forensic Accountants is Critical, which was published in the Journal of Forensic & Investigative Accounting. Porter is also a member of the journal’s Editorial Advisory Board.
Porter has done multiple presentations to investigators across Canada and the U.S. on conducting ethical, legal and effective interviews. His session at the 30th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference was highlighted on Fraud Conference News. Porter was also featured on the ACFE's podcast in the episode “The Interview Room: Preparation, Evidence and Empathy.”
Beverly Romeo-Beehler, J.D., CFF, CPA, CMA
Auditor General, City of Toronto
As the City of Toronto's Auditor General, Beverly Romeo-Beehler oversees the expenditures of the largest city in Canada, and the fourth-largest city in North America. Her office started one of the first fraud and waste hotlines in government and police have used her work as a starting point for some of their own criminal investigations.
Romeo-Beehler has worked with Auditor General offices across the country at all three levels of government. She has worked as a senior reviewer and investigator of complaints against Canada's national police force, the RCMP, and as a special investigator in the National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman's Office. Her 27-year public sector career includes specializing in data analytics, governance and oversight, integrity, ethics, transparency, accountability and fraud.
Miguel Rueda, CFE, CIA, CCEP, CRMA
Director, Audit & Compliance, Air Canada
Miguel Rueda joined Air Canada in 1998 as a customer service agent. He subsequently transferred to the finance branch, where he has held a number of positions in the internal audit division.
Throughout the years, Rueda has gained significant insight into whistleblowing reporting and investigations. He has helped review more than 600 reports received from anonymous sources. He has conducted more than 150 internal investigations and has led over 200 internal audits across Air Canada’s international network. Rueda is the administrator of the company’s ethics reporting program and is a member of Air Canada’s Ethics Committee.
Allan Sammy, CPA, CGA, CIA
Director, Data Science and Audit Analytics, Canada Post
Allan Sammy is the director of data science and audit analytics at Canada Post. He works with internal audit clients across the corporation to provide assurance and advisory services relating to advanced analytics and data modeling. Sammy also leads the development of big data capabilities and the coordination of the internal audit department's analytic initiatives. He has a master's degree in predictive analytics from Northwestern and more than 20 years of experience in risk management, investigations and internal audit.
Prior to joining Canada Post he was the director of fraud risk management at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and the head of internal audit at the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. He began his career in fraud investigation as an RCMP commercial crime investigator and forensic accountant with Deloitte. He has published articles on Auditing Analytic Models (IA Magazine), Detecting Bias in Analytics (IA Magazine) and using Artificial Intelligence and Neural Network Models for Fraud Detection (Certified Fraud Examiners (CFE) magazine online).
Suzanne Solven
Associate Vice President, Audit, Investigations and Quality Assurance, Pacific Blue Cross
Suzanne Solven is the associate vice president of audit, investigations and quality assurance at Pacific Blue Cross. Solven brings more than 25 years of strategic leadership experience to the position. She leads the fraud investigation branch and has developed and implemented a five-year anti-fraud strategy. She also leads the internal audit branch to ensure appropriate controls are in place from an enterprise-wide, holistic viewpoint.
Alexander Stein, PhD
Human Behavior and Decision-Making Expert Founder, Dolus Advisors Principal, Boswell Group
Dr. Alexander Stein is founder of Dolus Advisors and a principal in the Boswell Group. He is an expert in human behavior and decision-making. Dr. Stein advises executives and boards on psychologically complex leadership, culture and ethics issues. He is also a preeminent specialist in the psychodynamics of fraud, corruption, white-collar misconduct, insider threat and human factors in cybersecurity.
Dr. David Utzke CFE, CFI, CCE, CBE
Senior Agent, U.S. Government
Dr. David Utzke has a lifelong learning educational philosophy which includes advanced degrees in computer science/programming, forensic accounting, international finance, global macro-economics and cryptoeconomics with 25 years of experience in cryptocurrency technology. Utzke’s interest in cryptocurrencies began in 1990 with the introduction of the first centralized cryptocurrency called Digicash. In 2009, with the introduction of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), Utzke began the development of open-source blockchain forensic investigative techniques now used in his work as an agent with the U.S. government. He has led cryptocurrency initiatives involving several hundred cryptocurrency cases over the past five years, major enforcement actions, and trains and supports field agents in ongoing investigations. Utzke also continues to develop his computer coding skills in Solidity used in 2nd Gen DLT SCS (Smart Contract Scripting) and dApps (distributed applications) platforms.
Vincent M. Walden, CFE
Legal, Compliance and Anti-Fraud Technology Innovator
Vince Walden has more than 17 years of experience handling the information management, forensic analysis and electronic discovery needs for large-scale, complex litigations, investigations and proactive anti-fraud and compliance programs. Walden is experienced with providing clients leading anti-fraud-based innovation, research and analytics, including anti-bribery and corruption analytics, Fraud Triangle analytics and statistical anomaly detection. He has been featured in many publications including Fraud Magazine, Internal Auditor Magazine, Compliance Week, Forbes, The Economist, ABC News Online, CNBC and other leading publications.
Vladimir Yasenovskiy, Ph.D., CFE
Manager of Advanced Analytics, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation
Vladimir Yasenovskiy is a manager of advanced analytics at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG). He has been working in the field of predictive analytics and machine learning for more than 15 years and applied analytical methods for risk management, marketing, product management, finance and sales. For the past four years, he has been applying advanced analytical methods for fraud risk management. In 2011, he received a doctoral degree from the University of Alberta, Canada. Prior to joining OLG, he worked as an analyst at the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.
CaseWare IDEA is the essential tool for auditors and other finance professionals to identify, prevent and detect corporate fraud. Equipped with more than 100 audit-relevant tasks, statistical tools and features, IDEA makes it easy to analyze very large datasets and zero in on anomalies or outliers, identify trends, detect duplicates and unusual transactions. You can also track the steps in your analysis and visualize results for reporting. Visit the CaseWare IDEA booth and discover how easily data analysis can be incorporated into your fraud detection and monitoring programs.
Magnet Forensics is a global leader in the development of digital investigation software that acquires, analyzes and shares evidence from smartphones, computers, IoT related devices, and the cloud. Magnet Forensics has been helping examiners and investigators fight crime, protect assets, and guard national security since 2011.
i-Sight is investigative case management software that makes it easier to ensure that cases progress on schedule by using dashboards, to-do-lists, reminders and other alerts. i-Sight’s comprehensive reporting packages lets you slice, dice, graph and automatically distribute polished and consistent reports in the desired format. An optimized investigative process built on the i-Sight case management platform gives you the freedom to focus on investigations and identify trends to reduce future risk. i-Sight customers typically eliminate 25-50% of an investigator’s administrative burden and deliver more polished and consistent investigative reports in minutes instead of days or weeks.
SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative analytics, business intelligence and data management software and services, SAS helps customers at more than 83,000 sites make better decisions faster. Since 1976, SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®.
At Nuance, we understand that AI is only intelligent in the hands of those who use it. That’s why our innovation in conversational AI begins with listening, analysis, and deep understanding of each unique entity we serve.
Brainspace is the most comprehensive and advanced data analytics platform for investigations, eDiscovery, intelligence mining, and compliance. Our patented technology is specifically designed to enable you to accelerate the process of identifying what matters.
The Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) is a non-profit, member-based organization for compliance professionals that is dedicated to improving the quality of corporate governance, compliance and ethics. Our events, products, and resources offer education for those interested in becoming certified in compliance and ethics, or keeping their compliance department up-to-date with the latest news. We serve our members by providing a monthly magazine and weekly e-newsletter to help manage current issues. We offer conferences that enable network building and learning best practices; and academies that provide intensive training in the essentials of managing a compliance and ethics program.