Brian D’Costa is a founding partner of Algonquin Capital, a boutique specializing in alternative fixed income. Algonquin Capital manages $550 million of AUM spread across two mandates: the Algonquin Debt Strategies Fund (offering memorandum) and the Algonquin Fixed Income 2.0 Fund (alternative mutual fund).

Prior to starting Algonquin Capital, Brian was the Global Head of Fixed Income and Rates for CIBC, where he was responsible for the bank’s entire bond and rate trading business, overseeing 40 traders globally. Before that, Brian spent 11 years with TD Securities, where he was the Global Head of Vanilla Interest Rate Derivatives, managing trading teams in Toronto, London, Tokyo, and Sydney.

Charles Lesaux is a Managing Director on the Fixed Income repo desk in the Central Funding group at RBC Capital Markets. Charles joined the Global Rotational Program at RBC Capital Markets in 2005 after completing his MBA at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

Upon completion of the Global Rotational Program in the fall of 2006, Charles moved to Sydney, Australia to trade AUD and NZD FX Forwards in RBC’s Treasury Management group. In 2007, he returned to Toronto to assist with the management of the CAD FX Forward book and to expand STIR trading capabilities in the Treasury Management group. In 2010, Charles joined the Fixed Income repo desk in the Central Funding group.

Charles is a member of CFA Society Toronto and is also an active alumnus of the Rotman School of Management, both through participating in alumni events but also by volunteering his time as a mentor to future graduates. In addition, Charles is the Executive Sponsor for the Global Markets Pathways Diversity Award Program at RBC Capital Markets. In 2023, Charles was asked to co-chair a Bankers’ Acceptance related working group that was set up by the Bank of Canada under the CFIF.

Daniel Nebelung joined Société Générale in Toronto in 2009. He is Managing Director and Head of Equity and Equity Derivatives Flow for SG Canada. Prior to joining SG, Daniel worked in the UK for four years in the Equity Derivatives divisions of Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, and spent three years in the U.S. working as an analyst in the Private Wealth Management division of Goldman Sachs. Daniel holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics with a concentration in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania – Wharton School of Business, as well as an MBA from the London Business School.

Darcy Hall joined National Bank of Canada in 2016 as Managing Director and currently manages the XVA team. The XVA desk is responsible for accounting for the fair value of the Bank’s derivatives portfolios to include counterparty default risk, the impact of liquidity requirements, the impact of various collateral agreements and the changing regulatory framework for the Bank’s capital. The team is also active in the markets, hedging the Bank’s risk exposure to these various pricing components.

Darcy has over 25 years of experience in financial markets, having spent time on the Interest Rate Swaps, Options and Credit product desks at both CIBC World Markets and RBC Capital Markets from 1995-2016. Darcy holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from Queen’s University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Earl Davis has over 25 years of experience in Fixed Income and FX. He is Head of Fixed Income and Money Markets at BMO Global Asset Management where he has responsibility for actively managed fixed income mandates. Prior to joining BMO GAM, Earl led Developed Markets Fixed Income and FX at a leading pension organization where he had oversight over the nominal, inflation and global bond market portfolios.

Earl Davis is a past member of the Bank of Canada’s (BoC) Foreign Exchange Committee. He currently sits on the Accounting Standards Oversight Council and is a member of FSRA’s Pension Sector Technical Advisory Committee. He is a CFA charter holder and has an MBA from the University of Western Ontario.

Étienne Dubuc is Executive Vice-President, Financial Market, National Bank of Canada. He is in charge of the Bank's wholesale banking activities and treasury, including the Investment Banking, Corporate Banking, Equity, Fixed Income and Derivatives divisions. Mr. Dubuc is also a member of National Bank's Senior Leadership Team.

In addition to his professional activities, Mr. Dubuc has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the CHU Sainte-Justine Foundation since 2020. He has a Master's degree in Finance from HEC Montréal and a Bachelor's degree in Economics.

Luc Fortin is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Montréal Exchange (MX) and Global Head of Trading, TMX Group. Luc’s key responsibilities include leading growth in TMX’s equities, derivatives, and fixed income trading businesses, and delivering a world-class experience to our global client base. In 2021, his mandate expanded to include oversight and strategic direction of CDCC and CDS, TMX’s posttrade businesses and crucial components of Canada’s capital markets infrastructure.

Luc joined MX as Managing Director, Derivatives Trading in June 2016, following a 25-year career in Canada’s capital markets industry leading client-facing teams in fixed income and derivatives. Prior to joining MX, he served as Managing Director, Canadian Head of the Institutional Client Group at HSBC Bank Canada.

In this role, Mr. Fortin led HSBC’s institutional client-facing businesses in rates and credit, derivatives, foreign exchange and money markets across Canada. Prior to HSBC, he held senior leadership positions at TD Bank and TD Securities.

Mr. Fortin is a graduate of the TD Securities Leadership program at Ivey Business School and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from University of Ottawa. He has served as Board Chair of CANMarket Data and was an Investment Industry Association of Canada board member from 2006-2010.

Marina Mets heads up Fixed Income and Multi Asset Product Management & Research in the Americas. Building on her prior role in the Research team leading the Canadian Fixed Income business, Marina works closely with FTSE’s partners and key clients, including major asset owners, fund managers and investment banks to develop and broaden FTSE’s fixed income offering globally. Marina leads a team focused on targeted client engagement to design and provide index solutions, educate the market on FTSE’s index philosophy, and profile use of indexes in investment portfolios and strategies across all asset classes.

Marina has been with the Fixed Income Index business for 20 years, starting her career in the capital markets research team at Scotiabank, and continuing on with the Canada fixed income index business through its acquisition by TMX Group in 2006, and the subsequent acquisition by FTSE in 2013.

Marina holds a Bachelor of Commerce, specializing in Finance, Accounting, and Economics, from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and is a CPA CMA.

Philippe Seyer-Cloutier is a Managing Director who oversees Interest Rate Derivatives and Futures Trading at National Bank of Canada in Montréal.

Mr Seyer-Cloutier joined NBC in 2008 as an interest rate swap trader. He led the development of the derivative trading business, thus becoming a leader in the Canadian corporate space. In 2017, he became managing director of interest rate derivatives, adding to it the future trading business three years later. Over the last two years, he drove the development of derivatives electronic trading and established a market-making partnership with the Montréal Exchange to promote a more liquid, robust and transparent derivatives market in Canada.

Holder of a MSc in Financial Engineering from HEC Montréal, Mr Seyer-Cloutier is a Professional Risk Manager (PRM) who has also completed the Certificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF) program.

Robert Catani joined TMX Group in 2018 and currently serves as its Head of Institutional Fixed Income and Derivatives Sales and Trading. Robert has more than 30 years of experience in Canadian financial markets. Before he joined TMX, he was a Managing Director at National Bank of Canada and TD Securities, where he traded Canadian and US dollar fixed income products out of both Toronto and New York, and led business development for fixed income and derivative sales to institutional accounts. Robert earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto.

Robert Tasca, Managing Director, Derivatives Products and Services with TMX Group, at the Montréal Exchange, is responsible for managing the derivatives portfolio, specifically fixed income and equity derivatives. Robert's team focuses on enhancing the current derivatives product portfolio and developing new products, in addition to strategic initiatives and partnerships to help drive value to its clients.

Robert joined the Montréal Exchange in 1998, where he began his career in the open outcry pits or "floor" in Montréal, transitioning to the electronic platform in October 2000. With over 20 years of derivatives experience, Robert brings a full-service perspective to Montréal Exchange’s customers.

With over 25 years of experience in financial services, Laura Lau leads Brompton’s portfolio management team as Chief Investment Officer. She oversees assets of approximately $2.5 billion primarily in global and Canadian equity covered call mandates designed to generate income and lower volatility of returns. Ms. Lau is a frequent commentator for BNN Bloomberg TV, The Globe & Mail, and other news outlets. Ms. Lau has a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds the Derivatives Market Specialist designation.

In 2012, Aly Somani joined the Multi-Asset Solutions team at SLGI Asset Management (a subsidiary of Sun Life Financial and the investment manager of the Sun Life family of mutual funds). Based in Toronto, Mr. Somani is Portfolio Manager for several strategies and funds managed by the team and is part of the team’s Asset Allocation Committee, supporting the team’s strategic and tactical asset allocation, quantitative modeling and derivative strategies.

He holds an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of Ottawa and is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant, CFA charterholder and Certified Public Accountant (U.S.).

Chris has over two decades of experience in the investment industry and currently serves as portfolio manager for derivative-based and equity-based portfolios. This includes the management and trading of options on Canadian, U.S. and European equities and ETFs. He also manages various cross-asset portfolios, which include Canadian and U.S. fixed income and global equities. Chris has taken on numerous roles since joining BMO Financial Group in 2002, including Manager of Investments for BMO Asset Management Inc., where he was responsible for monitoring and selecting mutual fund managers. In this role, he was also responsible for overseeing the currency hedging program across the mutual fund platform. Chris holds a BBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business and is a CFA charterholder.

Corey Garriott joined TMX Group in 2021 and is Head of Product Research at the Montréal Exchange. Prior to joining TMX, he worked for nine years at the Bank of Canada where he represented Canada at the Bank for International Settlements and published in scholarly journals on topics such as banking regulation and market microstructure. Corey holds a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Rizwan Awan leads the trading businesses of Canada’s premier equity exchanges, Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, and TSX Alpha Exchange. He also oversees Products and Services across TMX Markets, responsible for innovating, designing, and building market solutions across all asset classes and charting the path for Canadian markets.

Rizwan joined TMX in 2020, following nearly two decades in client facing capital markets roles at leading financial institutions. Prior to TMX, he served as Managing Director of Quantitative Execution Services at BMO Capital Markets, heading up Program and Electronic trading as well as Index and Market Structure research.

As an active contributor to market structure and policy issues in Canada, Rizwan represents TMX on OSC’s Market Structure Advisory Committee and IIROC’s Market Rules Advisory Committee. Mr. Awan is also the former Chair of the Canadian Securities Traders Association and Board of Governors of the US Securities Traders Association. He holds a BMath degree in Computer Science from University of Waterloo and is a CFA charterholder.

Royce Mendes joined Desjardins Capital Markets in 2022 as Managing Director & Head of Macro Strategy. He leads a team of professionals in Toronto that is responsible for analyzing and developing forecasts for the macroeconomy and financial markets. Royce has a strong reputation for the depth of his insights and his communication skills, making him an engaging commentator who is regularly sought out by the media. Before joining Desjardins, he held the role of Executive Director, Economics at a major Canadian bank, where he led the firm’s efforts to monitor and forecast developments in the Canadian economy with a team judged to be the most accurate by many independent polling firms. Previously, Royce held the positions of Portfolio Manager for Canada’s Foreign Exchange Reserves, Associate Editor for the Bank of Canada’s publication Financial System Review, and Principal Researcher in the Bank of Canada’s Financial Markets Department.

Harri Vikstedt joined the Bank of Canada in 2006. He is currently a Senior Policy Director in the Financial Markets Department focussed on financial market related issues including the global and domestic benchmark reform efforts.

Harri is a member of the FSB’s Official Sector Steering Group and the co-chair of the Canadian Alternative Reference Rate working group (CARR) which is responsible for helping to transition the Canadian financial system from the Canadian Dollar Offered Rate (CDOR) to the Canadian Overnight Repo Rate Average (CORRA). Prior to this he was responsible for the Bank’s domestic and foreign currency trading operations, as well as for implementing the Bank’s strategy for acquiring and analyzing financial market intelligence. Harri worked in global financial markets in both Europe and North America for 17 years before joining the Bank.

He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds an MBA in Finance and an engineering degree from the University of Toronto.

Warren Lovely is a Managing Director with National Bank Financial (NBF), serving as Chief Rates and Public Sector Strategist within the firm’s Economics and Strategy group. Warren joined NBF in 2015 from CIBC, where he had worked for 15 years in a variety of roles in economics, strategy, and debt underwriting. Warren had earlier worked for the Government of Canada in Ottawa, including at the Department of Finance.

Warren holds a Master’s degree in Economics from Queen’s University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Wilfrid Laurier University. Warren is a frequent commentator on financial markets in the media and regularly speaks to investors, business groups and governments in Canada and abroad.

Robin Das is Head of the Canadian Interest Rate Derivatives Trading desk at RBC Capital Markets and Co-Chair of CARR’s Derivatives Sub-Committee. He has been trading derivatives for more than 20 years – running the desk at RBC and prior to that at BMO in Toronto and London.

Dominic has 25 years of experience working in financial markets. In his current role, he leads the development of iAGAM’s Fixed Income teams to bring innovative products to the market and superior return potential to investor portfolios. Prior to joining iAGAM, Dominic was Vice-President of Portfolio Construction, Active Duration, at Addenda Capital, where he played a key role in growing the firm’s fixed-income business. He previously spent 10 years at Merrill Lynch and began his career as an analyst at the Montréal Exchange. Dominic holds a Bachelor degree in Finance from Concordia University.

Ian Pollick joined CIBC Capital Markets in 2017. Mr. Pollick has spent the last decade covering the North American economy and rates markets, focusing on how the broader macroeconomic environment influences the yield curve. In addition, Mr. Pollick has generated leading-edge analytics aimed at finding RV opportunities as well as larger macro trades for a variety of end-investors. He is a regular contributor to the financial press and spends a considerable amount of time traveling and talking with clients including: asset managers, governments, hedge funds, and pension funds. Mr. Pollick was ranked #1 for Canadian fixed income research in 2018, 2019 and 2020 by Greenwich Associates.

Prior to joining CIBC Capital Markets, Mr. Pollick was a Portfolio Manager and Head of Interest Rates at a hedge fund. In that capacity, he co-managed a long-only duration fund in addition to a tactical global macro sub-fund. Before his move to the buy-side, Mr. Pollick spent a decade at two other major financial institutions in a similar capacity, helping to generate best-in-class fixed income research for the domestic market. He began his career as an equity options trader in Chicago.

Mr. Pollick has an Honors Degree in Applied Economics from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Arts in Economics (Finance specialty) from York University.

Thomas Thorn is a Principal Analyst in the Bank of Canada’s Toronto Regional Office Team and serves as Secretariat for the Canadian Alternative Reference Rate (CARR) working group. Prior to this, Thomas worked at the Financial Stability Board on issues related to non-bank financial intermediation. Thomas has an MA in economics and is a CFA charterholder.

Marc Laberge is Head Trader - Rates & FX Derivatives at Desjardins. He has 14 years of experience in OTC derivatives and fixed income, focused on trading and tactical portfolio management mandates for Desjardins' Treasury in the Canadian, U.S. and European rates markets.

Marc holds GARP’s FRM Certification and previously worked in risk management functions at National Bank Financial and at CIRANO, a Montreal-based inter-university research centre.

Marc has been an active participant on the Canadian Alternative Reference Rate (CARR) transition committee since 2019. He has been called upon to lead industry-wide working groups within CARR, such as serving as Lead of the ALM Derivatives end-users workstream under the Derivatives subgroup and, most recently, Co-Lead of the Term CORRA Use Cases workstream.

Curt Harnett’s passion for the bicycle (and life) has taken him places he only thought possible in his childhood dreams. This 3-time Olympic medallist, former world record holder and shampoo pitchman will reflect on the lessons he learned as he took on the world, and will share the secrets to his success, both on and off the bike. Spoiler alert: There are no secrets.

A seasoned industry veteran, Andre Langevin is the Co-Founder and Head of Quant & Analytics at CanDeal DNA, CanDeal’s data and analytics business. He has designed and implemented its market-leading bond valuation products, contributing to the company’s growth and expanding its offerings of market-leading pricing and analytics solutions. He is currently leading innovation efforts for its next-generation client solutions.

Andre has more than 30 years of experience developing technology and risk solutions for banks, asset managers, exchanges and more, across the financial sector. Key achievements include developing real-time risk solutions for fixed income and derivatives, big data programs, quantitative portfolio management solutions and machine learning practices.

Known as an “expert’s expert,” Andre’s next goal is to write a book on risk systems.

Greg Doyle is Vice President, Pension Fund Investments at Kruger Inc., a diversified pulp, paper and energy company headquartered in Montreal. Prior to Kruger, Greg was at la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, acting as Assistant Portfolio Manager in US equities. He began his career in London where he worked at various investment banks. He is a graduate of City, University of London and holds a University Diploma in Management from the Université de Nancy II.

Greg Doyle is Vice President, Pension Fund Investments at Kruger Inc., a diversified pulp, paper and energy company headquartered in Montreal. Prior to Kruger, Greg was at la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, acting as Assistant Portfolio Manager in US equities. He began his career in London where he worked at various investment banks. He is a graduate of City, University of London and holds a University Diploma in Management from the Université de Nancy II.

Pierre-Philippe Ste-Marie has 25 years of experience in the financial industry working with fixed income and cross-asset absolute return teams. He has initiated and unwound absolute return and indexed portfolios and managed Canadian, US and European cross-asset exposure, levered and unlevered, as a team leader (CEO, CIO) as well as a portfolio manager.

Prior to joining Bodhi Research as Visiting Researcher, Pierre-Philippe was Optimum Asset Management’s Co-CIO until March 2022. During his tenure, he implemented global management and global execution, bringing American, European and Canadian teams under the same investment process with cross-trading agreements. Prior to joining Optimum, he founded and was Chief Executive Officer of Razorbill Advisors, a Montreal-based investment management firm focused on fixed income, absolute return, total return and relative-value strategies. From 1997 to 2013, he worked for National Bank of Canada, first as a fixed- income option modeller, then as a market maker, eventually rising to become Managing Director, leading a team specialized in quantitative credit modeling and investments.

After spending a year in Portugal, playing division 1 Basketball for Estrelas da Avenida in Lisbon, Pierre completed an International Baccalaureate at the Petit Séminaire de Québec in Québec City. Pierre then received a Joint Honours in Economics and Finance with a minor in Mathematics from McGill University and a Master of Science in Computational Finance from Carnegie Mellon University. In his spare time, Pierre can be found practicing his lifelong passion for Kendo, playing electric bass with his daughters, reading or cooking with his family.

Andy Baehr is Managing Director at CoinDesk Indices (CDI), where he oversees product development and distribution of digital asset indices, systematic strategies, and rates. Andy joined CDI in 2022, bringing twenty-five years of global markets and investment management experience. He was a partner at Risk Premium Investments, an alternative asset manager serving institutional investors. He held leadership roles on derivatives desks at Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas, Morgan Stanley, and Deutsche Bank. Andy holds B.A. and MBA degrees from Columbia University. He is a CFA® charter holder and holds the CAIA designation.