Tarick Ahmad is the Chief Technology Officer for the Workers’ Compensation Board – Alberta. Prior to this, he worked in the construction, energy, and technology industries. He was the Chief Innovation Officer for a public long-term disability and extended healthcare organization overseeing finance, technology, enterprise risk management, and facilities. Tarick has extensive experience in all aspects of business technology innovation, business intelligence, cybersecurity, and complex project management. He was the recipient of a global innovation award for his work with optimizing a case management platform in 2016. Tarick volunteers as a judge for the national Ingenious Awards, which celebrate enterprises that demonstrate measurable evidence of productivity improvement, efficiency gains, revenue growth, overall business transformation, or other organizational outcomes using technology. He sits on the Innovation, Technology and Accounting Conference advisory committee for CPA Alberta.
Driven by curiosity, Faaiza is an entrepreneur and marketer whose best work comes from exploring connections between seemingly disparate ideas. This curiosity has led her into roles in investment banking, tech, broadcast media, and economic development—and placed her in the middle of challenging, satisfying, and memorable experiences.
As leader of OnPurpose, her strategic marketing studio, Faaiza helps organizations figure out how to tell their story in crowded landscapes, and create meaningful connections with their audiences through products, partnerships, and purpose. Faaiza also recently launched Field Notes, the first company in North America to craft herbal liqueurs from distilled Canadian field peas.
Whether in business or in her community, Faaiza’s work often begins by asking questions like, “how might we,” “what if,” and what happens when.”
Jhod Cardinal is a content specialist who has financed, sold, and produced Films and TV Series for more than twenty years. In 2013 he founded Upstream Flix, which creates progressive sales opportunities for independent projects. In a few short years Upstream Flix has grown its catalogue to over 700 hours of content and also represents the catalogue for Thunderbird Entertainment (Kim’s Convenience, Beat Bugs, Intelligence). Jhod is partnered with dotstudioPRO, specialists in OTT Platforms and CMS, as the VP of Distribution & Acquisitions. Overseeing a combined content catalogue of 2700 hours, and working with all major broadcasters and platforms, Jhod continues to develop strategies to release content in the ever-changing digital space.
Michael is an Emmy® award-winning filmmaker and broadcast storytelling consultant in both the fiction and nonfiction formats. As a producer, writer and director, his work has earned more than 80 international, national and regional awards. Michael garnered five titles as WCNPA Television Photojournalist of the Year and was one of the first journalists into war-torn Somalia prior to the UN-sanctioned Operation Restore Hope. Michael helped launch the world’s first weekly science program, Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet. He’s the only filmmaker in history to be granted access inside a U.S. Department of Defense weapons competition. Battle of the X-Planes earned him his first Emmy® for best long form news and current affairs documentary. Michael has produced, written and directed numerous primetime specials for National Geographic, Discovery Channel, History, PBS, ZDF Germany and Arte France. In addition to his work for the screen Michael’s company Myth Merchant Films also secured the rights and produced several international nonfiction books which include Far Side of the Moon and The Fierce that were released by publishers in the U.S. and U.K. Michael is a member of the Canadian Media Producers Association and the former Chair of the Alberta Media Production Industries Association. Michael has been a judge for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Emmys® since 2010 and is a member of the Producers Guild of America.