A regular blogger, speaker, author, and all round PeopleTools guru, Jim brings more than 20 years of PeopleSoft experience. Jim has background both inside and outside of Oracle. In a word, Jim has been “there.” He knows what it is like to be a customer.

Katrina Ingram is the Founder and CEO of Ethically Aligned AI, a company focused on helping organizations to drive better outcomes in the design, development and deployment of AI systems. A seasoned executive, Katrina has over two decades of experience running both not for profit and corporate organizations in the technology and media sectors as well as experience in the public sector. She is a member of DAMA and volunteers with several AI ethics organizations including Women in AI and Ethics (WAIE), For Humanity and All Tech is Human. She was named to the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics list for 2022. Katrina holds an undergrad in business administration from Simon Fraser University and a master of arts in communications and technology from the University of Alberta. She combines her love of audio and interest in AI as the host of the podcast, AI4Society Dialogues. Katrina is a member of the Calgary Police Services Technology Ethics Committee and recently developed Canada's first micro-credential in AI Ethics in partnership with Athabasca University.

Nicole Engelbert is vice president of higher education development at Oracle. She is responsible for engaging the industry ecosystem to develop thought leadership and best practice with cloud technology and to use those insights to guide the development of Oracle’s higher education solutions including its Student Cloud product suite.

Loren has been a part of IT at NAIT for the past twenty-four years, starting in a technical role in NAIT's PeopleSoft implementation. He now leads NAIT Applications and Integration portfolio in IT including Enterprise Systems, Application Development, Cloud & DevOps, Business Intelligence, Data Governance, and Enterprise Architecture. In the past several years, Loren has focused on cloud migration, application modernization, the development of NAIT's integration capabilities and what comes after PeopleSoft.

Ashton has been leading the Enterprise Business Solutions team at NorQuest College for 2 years. In partnership with business areas, the team is responsible for maintaining and configuring the ERP system (Oracle PeopleSoft), and custom application development. Prior to this role, Ashton led the Technology Infrastructure team at NorQuest College and previously worked at the University of Alberta in various IT roles.

Jeff has been with NAIT for twenty-five years. His expertise is in PeopleSoft analysis, design, development, support and has been supporting Human Capital Management and Finance for most of his career.  In his current role as Manager, Enterprise System his team’s portfolio includes all three PeopleSoft system (Human Capital Management, Campus Solutions, Finance), EPBCS, AiM Facilities Management, and several sub systems that integrate closely with these ERP applications.

Lee Ann has more than 20 years of experience working with higher education institutions, implementing Campus Solutions, advising on business process redesign and providing general customer education and support. She is excited to now also be previewing Oracle’s new cloud student information system, Oracle Student Management.

John works within NTT DATA’s Oracle Center of Excellence. He is a PeopleSoft consultant with expertise in Financials and Supply Chain Management and production support. John has over 20 years of experience working with clients to implement, upgrade, support and optimize PeopleSoft. John likes to bridge operational, technical, and functional challenges in complex business environments, with a focus on Higher Education clients including Lakeland College, Olds College, the University of Alberta, and the University of Calgary.

Vamsi has been with MacEwan University for about 10 years and delivered ERP application upgrades and other transformation projects. In his current role, he manages ERP Business Support Office at MacEwan overseeing the Application Management Services for ERP and associated business applications. Most recently his team has participated in the migration of MacEwan’s PeopleSoft infrastructure from on-premise datacenter to AWS Cloud hosted environment. Before MacEwan, Vamsi worked with a global consulting firm for 14 years delivering ERP solutions to clients in various domains including Higher Education, Financial services, and Insurance.

Dallas works with Oracle’s public sector clients sharing the news about Enterprise Performance Management.

Snigdha works with NTT DATA’s Oracle Center of Excellence and has 20 years of PeopleSoft consulting experience. Snigdha is skilled in achieving operational and functional efficiency in complex Higher Education business processes by leveraging her expertise and in-depth knowledge of various PeopleSoft Campus Solutions modules like Admissions, Student Records, Student Financials, Campus Community, Fluid Self-Service, Reporting and Analytics. She has been instrumental in successfully designing and implementing complex solutions for clients like Lakeland College, NAIT and University of Alberta.​

Sonja Miles is a Senior Consultant with a proven track record for successful project delivery over the last 20 years. Sonja has led projects in a multitude of industries including telecommunications, oil and gas, finance, construction travel, and utilities. Sonja has been leading Workday implementations and functionality enhancements since 2012, and is keen to share her knowledge, experience, and insights with clients to help them achieve business outcomes and transformation goals.

Over 20 years of experience supporting Oracle ERP solutions, including as an Oracle Customer as part of an implementation project and as a support specialist post-implementation, helping business users get the most value from their Oracle investment.

Cheryl has over 10 years of experience at Oracle within the Canadian Public Sector group, where she focuses on Oracle Cloud HCM. She is excited to share with you the Oracle HCM Cloud, and how its end-user focused employee experience platform can help your institution modernize and focus on the needs of your workers both today and tomorrow.

Lisa has been with Lakeland College for 15 years spending nearly all those years working in the hectic environment of Student Services. With over 10 years’ experience developing and refining Admissions processes, Lisa is now focusing her attention on building a “students first” approach to enhancing our Campus Solutions platform. She is excited to share Lakeland’s new Campus Solutions Kibana Dashboard and how it has improved reporting to all college stakeholders.  

A life-long learner, David has been interested in AI since his early days at the University of Pittsburgh, where he developed research databases for neonatal mortality, breast cancer and springbok migrations. From Lisp and Prolog to LLMs and generative AI and ML, David has walked a long path, but still hasn’t figured out how to predict anything of consequence. David has been serving the higher education community through Oracle for more than thirteen years and really enjoys his work.

Josh is a Managing Director at Accenture, leading the Oracle Practice in Western Canada. With 20 years of experience in Backoffice Transformation, he specializes in Cloud ERP implementations, particularly with Oracle ERP, HCM, and EPM Cloud. Josh has worked with clients in North America and Europe across various industries, helping them improve their Finance, Human Resource and Technology functions. He excels in program delivery, business process optimization, and shared services, with a strong background in financial and supply chain Cloud applications. In addition to leading Cloud ERP implementations, Josh is skilled in developing comprehensive business cases, creating multi-year roadmaps, and leading enterprise-wide Transformation programs.

Cherise is an accomplished Delivery Leader in the Oracle ERP Cloud practice in Canada at Accenture. She is one of the few people in the world who has both Oracle ERP Cloud consulting implementation and product management experience having launched new Oracle ERP Higher Education cloud products as a former Oracle employee. With 20+ years of experience in Oracle consulting and product management, Cherise is adept at bridging the operational, technical, and functional requirements in complex business environments by understanding pain points, business issues, and strategic goals. This expertise has been integral to Cherise advising Higher Ed clients on using Oracle products to drive business transformation, improve financial sustainability, reduce financial risk and achieve institution operational excellence.

Shai has more than 20 years of experience supporting Human Resources teams as an HRIS Specialist, Total Rewards Analyst and a Manager leading various HR functions. Prior to joining Workday, Shai was part of three major ERP implementation projects as a lead for HCM and served as a key member of HR transformation projects. 

Mylène has over 30 years of HCM & Payroll experience, 10 of them with Workday. A certified Payroll Leadership Professional with the National Payroll Institute since 2006, Mylène has helped hundreds of customers, including multiple Canadian universities, understand how Workday helps increase collaboration and foster partnership across their organization.

With 20 years finance systems implementation, project management and operations experience, Raelyn brings a unique perspective to her engagements with the office of the CFO. Her nuanced approach to Workday solutions for intricate financial challenges rely on both her analytical expertise and design thinking to drive results. Since joining Workday, Raelyn has worked with a broad range of customers in Canada and the US from energy start-ups to municipalities like the City of Leduc.

Robin is the Lead Technology Risk Consulting Partner for KPMG’s Prairies Region and has over 18 years of experience in governance, risk management, risk assessment and assurance services. Robin has managed numerous engagements in enterprise risk management, assurance, internal controls certification, governance and strategy implementations and cyber security. Robin has experience in cyber security areas like information security audits and assessments, strategy, transformation - design and architecture, governance and core technical assessments, regulatory and compliance assessments, threat consulting – vulnerability assessments, designing cyber resilience and crisis management, proactive cyber monitoring and establishing security operations center and incident response team. Robin is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE) and Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Ganesh is a highly experienced Senior Manager in the Technology Risk Consulting - Cyber Security practice, with more than 11 years of progressive experience in technical security domains. His expertise includes incident response, digital forensics, malware reverse engineering, threat intelligence, threat actor attribution, security consulting, and security tool automations. Before joining KPMG, Ganesh worked as a Manager in the Cyber Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) at one of the Largest Canadian Banks. In this role, he managed the incident response team and ensured the deployment of appropriate defense mechanisms to protect the bank and mitigate threats. Ganesh holds a Masters in Computer Application (MCA) from India and an MSc in Network and Information Security from the UK. He also holds several professional designations, including CISSP, SANS GCFA, and SANS GNFA.

Amit has a total experience of more than 18 years in designing and architecting automation solution on Low Code, BPMS and RPA platform. He has led the BPM practice for organizations like Deloitte and Capgemini in the past and has implemented intelligent automation services as a client. 

Professional and industry experience (Select)

Private Client Servicing: One the largest financial services company was looking to streamline business processes in it wealth business line leveraging Appian. Amit has been instrumental in getting their core banking operations on their Appian Orchestration layer allowing them to modernize their banking process. 

Largest Oil and Gas Client Calgary: One of the largest Oil and Gas company based out of Calgary worked with Amit to implement their Field Modernization solution. Amit helped the client to build their UI based platform on appian allowing them a significant ROI on the platform. 

Investment Allocation Process: Amit is assisted a client with automating their Bank Financial Allocation processes involving investment creation, investment locking, allocation and finalization. He worked as the technology lead and was responsible to design and development of the solution and overall team management. 

Large University : Amit Banerjee was managing the Localized team as the Appian technology lead. He was responsible for assigning stories, planning spring for BPM track. The client, a university was looking to automate processes such as transcript requests, course scheduling, and graduation milestones. 

JQ is currently the Technology Strategy and Transformation Leader, Prairies at KPMG Canada. He formerly lead IBM’s Data, AI and Analytics practice for Western Canada and has a proven track record for delivering strong growth performance and high client satisfaction in all engagements.   As a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and an IBM L1 Certified Architect candidate, he is technically inclined in the subject matters of Corporate Accounting and Finance, M&A Advisory and Integration, Digital Strategy and Transformation, Innovation Management, Financial Business Valuation, Data Strategy & Governance, and Data Analytics. JQ has spent the majority of his career working with clients in the Natural Resource sector, with a focus on Downstream Petroleum and Fuel Retail. He led the acquisition and integration of a significant number of Fuel, Food and Ag Retailers, as well as the digital transformation of a major Canadian Fuel digital and loyalty platform.  As an intrapreneur, he applies Agile, and Lean Startup methods, as well as a sense of urgency in all facets. He is a Data and AI geek that is fortunate to lead a talented team of Data Scientists and Digital Transformation consultants. We are maniacal about delivering on trust through epic innovation, being fully dedicated to our client's successful sustainability and transformation journeys and having fun, while being ambassadors for KPMG’s Values. JQ is honoured to be named to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) Future 40.

Intkhab has over 30 years of IT experience both as a Enterprise and Solution Architect and in various IT Leadership roles in organizations both large and small, private and public sector. He specializes in emerging technologies and practices and contributing to solutions that span business, information, and application, and technology domains of knowledge. He has worked with – either as an employee or consultant – over 100 different organizations with particularly strong industry specializations in Education, Gaming, and Public Sector. His background in technology enablement includes the full cycle of selection, procurement, transformation, integration, and replacement. He is also a former educator. Most recently, Intkhab has been specializing in helping companies manage their Digital Transformations and Modernization programs – particularly in public sector and Education environments. His background in Enterprise and Solution architecture, Project Management, application lifecycle management, software testing, and Enabling technologies combine with experience in multiple clients to help transform organizations into architecturally sound, technology-enabled, strategic leaders in their sector.

SueAnne is a Senior Manager in KPMG’s People and Change practice in Calgary, with 17 years of experience across the Energy, Technology, Manufacturing and Public sectors. She helps organizations accelerate value capture via their workforce by enabling adoption of digital technology, new ways of working and a growth-oriented culture. She has a passion for People Analytics and is a catalyst for courageous curiosity, supporting clients in finding opportunities to continuously improve across their people, process and technology dimensions. SueAnne currently serves on the Board of Calgary Women in Energy, is Co-Chair of the University of Calgary Haskayne MBA Alumni Alliance and is an avid volunteer in the community. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences and Master of Business Administration from the University of Calgary.

Rob Clayton, CPA, CA is the leader of KPMG’s Public Sector Audit practice in Ottawa and the industry leader for the MUSH (Municipalities, Universities, Schools, and Healthcare) sector in Ottawa. Rob has more than 15 years’ experience in attest audits and compliance audits, Lean engagements, governance reviews and operational efficiency reviews for public sector organizations. Rob also provides advisory services to public sector organizations in the areas of governance, risk, process optimization, efficiency, Lean management system implementations and operational support. Rob is a member of KPMG’s National Public Sector Practice Network. Rob is the deputy leader of KPMG Canada’s Education Practice (Universities, Colleges and School Boards) and is a member of KPMG’s Global Education leadership team. As a Partner responsible for financial statement audits and advisory assignments, Rob oversees the planning, conduct, and reporting for the engagement, and performs the preparation and presentation to the Audit Committee of the Audit Planning Report, the Audit Findings Report, and the Management Letter, and presentation of advisory deliverables to management, and the Board of Directors as required. Rob has also acted as a subject matter expert on advisory engagements for entities across the country. Rob is a leader in the implementation of KPMG’s award winning Lean in Audit services being implemented on our audit engagements. This involves leading edge practices of using Lean process mapping techniques to document key audit processes and provide key insights and recommendations to our clients on how to improve their processes. Rob is co-leading the implementation of Lean services in the public sector in Canada. As a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Rob is helping to oversee the expansion of our Lean services offerings in Canada. Rob is also the leader, or subject matter expert on a number of significant Lean management system implementations currently underway.

Mr. Asquini is a Director at KPMG’s Management Consulting practice, based in Edmonton (AB), leading service delivery teams in the Information Management and Data Analytics domain. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering (with Great Distinction), a University Certificate in Computer and Information Systems, several professional certifications in IT governance, architecture and project management and has 16 years of consulting and industry experience in digital transformation, information technology service delivery and applied artificial intelligence engagements. He has successfully delivered several digital transformation projects for mid-market to large enterprise clients in roles ranging from project manager to quality assurance lead across a variety of industries: public sector (federal, provincial and municipal), energy, forestry, financial services, supply chain and retail. Prior to joining KPMG Canada, Mr. Asquini was previously the Vice President, Customer Solutions at AltaML and was responsible for the company’s delivery and account management functions. In this capacity he provided direct project leadership as a Project Manager, Engagement Lead or Quality Assurance leader on AI strategy and operating model engagements as well as the development of over 100 applied artificial intelligence use cases across the Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning lifecycle. Mr. Asquini also has experience in IT governance, IT portfolio and investment management and program management through his experience at the Government of Alberta and Canadian Armed Forces. His professional values and management style focuses on delivering with quality and transparency through strong communication and collaboration. Mr. Asquini has established himself as an invested partner in his engagements and has been sought out to provide strategic advice to client leaders. 

With over fifteen years of experience in the field of Information Technology (IT), Maria has honed her skills and gained a wealth of knowledge. Her expertise encompasses various facets of the IT industry, allowing her to navigate complex challenges and drive meaningful solutions. Still new and with more than a year of PeopleSoft experience, Maria believes that knowledge is a journey and recognizes that true growth and transformation lie in the pursuit of new insights and experiences. She cherishes the connections she forms with others and believes in the power of collaboration and shared experiences.

Roy is a career Enterprise IT leader. Prior to joining AWS, Roy was a CIO for over a decade, including for Seneca College in Ontario and for British Columbia Institute of Technology in BC. Roy has served on number of boards and has experience across education, provincial, and the federal government. At AWS, Roy is an Executive Advisor with ProServe, focusing on assisting CIOs in their move to cloud technology. This includes identifying a path forward, change management, governance, and strategy.

Charles has over 20 years of experience in IT, primarily as a software developer and architect. Much of his experience has been acquired in the private sector until 8 years ago when he moved into the exciting and challenging world of Higher Education IT. Charles has just recently transitioned from being the Chief Information Security Officer at MacEwan University to their new Director of Cloud Services. In his new role he plans to be a DevOps champion and technology mentor, and to lead MacEwan on their "cloud first" journey.

Nav Anand has been with AWS for over 5 years, where he is currently the Solutions Architecture Leader for Education, EdTechs, and Financial Services for the Canadian business. Prior to this, Nav built and led the Partner Organizations tech teams for AWS Canada. Prior to AWS, Nav spent over a decade working at PeopleSoft/Oracle building, selling, and implementing various ERP systems. During his 20 year career Nav has worked across 4 continents and has been an Inclusion, Diversity & Equity (IDE) leader. A former start-up founder, and experience across multiple industries fuels Nav’s desire for life-long learning because you never know where the learning journey takes you.

Ken has been with the University of Calgary for the past 12 years in a career that has spanned 32 years in multiple industries including Higher Education, Transportation, Telecommunications, Oil & Gas, Manufacturing and Government. His current portfolio consists of Enterprise Applications and platforms, Applications (Vendor, SaaS and Custom Developed), Business Intelligence & Analytics, Integrations, Content & Collaboration, Geospatial Services and ucalgary.ca web services. Ken's most recent initiatives all involve migrating services to the cloud including Hyperion to EPM Cloud, modernizing the Business Intelligence Platform, the migration of SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint Online, completing a Proof of Concept to migrate platforms/applications to Microsoft Azure and the planned Proof of Concept to host PeopleSoft as an IaaS solution.