About the Program

Digital adoption and dependence have been dramatically propelled by the global Covid-19 pandemic.  The sudden growth spotlights critical issues such as cybersecurity, privacy, resilience, the highly consequential shift to 5G, and what innovative technologies may follow.  Leadership in 5G adoption will be a vital determinant of future national competitiveness, as 5G will further enable dramatic technological advances in logistics, manufacturing, autonomous vehicles, mining, construction and smart grids.

The Canadian International Council will host a virtual presentation on global trends and issues and the related opportunities and challenges for Canada, “Propelled by the Pandemic – Explosive Digital Growth, 5G Adoption and Beyond” on Monday, June 22, from 6:00 to 7:30 pm EDT.  The event is free of charge.

The Canadian International Council is the leading national organization engaging Canadians in a dialogue on world affairs and Canada’s global role, through CIC’s branches, events, research, publications and insights. CIC’s Waterloo Branch is organizing the event, in partnership with the U.S. Embassy and Consulates General in Canada, Communitech Corp, and the Canadian Digital Media Network.

Keynote Speaker

The keynote speaker is Melissa E. Hathaway, a leading expert in cyberspace policy and cybersecurity who consults governments, global organizations, and Fortune 500 companies on cybersecurity, enterprise risk management, and technology assessments.  She is globally recognized as a thought leader in this field and has spent the last decade developing relationships with the highest levels of governments and international institutions — advising UN, NATO, the ITU, the OAS, and other key institutions and governments.  She teaches at universities around the world and leads initiatives at internationally recognized think tanks. Ms. Hathaway served in two Presidential administrations where she spearheaded the Cyberspace Policy Review for President Barack Obama and led the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative for President George W. Bush.   She received the National Intelligence Reform Medal, September 2009 and the National Intelligence Meritorious Unit Citation, December 2011 for her leadership.  Ms. Hathaway is President of Hathaway Global Strategies LLC and has served on the board of directors for three public companies and three non-profit organizations.

She provides strategic advice to a number of public and private companies and brings her clients a unique combination of policy and technical expertise, as well as board room experience that allows her to help clients better understand the intersection of government policy, developing technological and industry trends, and economic drivers that impact acquisition and business development strategy in this field.

Ms. Hathaway will discuss the importance of 5G adoption to national competitiveness and countries’ digital economies. Countries will experience unprecedented digital change connecting more of our critical business applications and infrastructures to the Internet — driving innovation and GDP growth.  However, along with these opportunities comes unprecedented vulnerability.  Ms. Hathaway will highlight the associated risks of 5G deployment and adoption and will explain what risk mitigations are being explored by countries and companies globally.

Panelists

Professor Florian Kerschbaum, Executive Director, Waterloo Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute, Waterloo

Since 2017, Dr. Kerschbaum has been Associate Professor in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. He became the Executive Director of the Waterloo Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute in 2018. Prior to Waterloo, he worked as chief research expert at SAP in Karlsruhe (2005 – 2016) and as a software architect at Arxan Technologies in San Francisco (2002 – 2004).

Professor Kerschbaum holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (2010) and a master’s degree from Purdue University (2001).

His interests lie in data security and privacy in data management, machine learning, and blockchains. He extends real-world systems with cryptographic security mechanisms to achieve (some) provable security guarantees. His work has been applied to products for databases, supply chain management and RFID tracking.

Dr. Jon Lindsay, MunkSchool of Global Affairs & Public Policy, the University of Toronto

Jon R. Lindsay is Assistant Professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Information Technology and Military Power (Cornell, 2020) and editor of Cross-Domain Deterrence (Oxford, 2019) and China and Cybersecurity (Oxford, 2015). He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, and he has served in the U.S. Navy.

Rod Wilson, Chief Technologist, Research Networks, Ciena, Ottawa

Rod Wilson is responsible for Ciena’s leadership and global interactions with universities and the research community, including national research and education networks. His particular focus is on collaboration with advanced high performance networks being created by national government for research and education purposes. These networks experiment with emerging, pre-commercial hardware and software solutions. Mr. Wilson directs Ciena’s involvement with these research networks. Further, representing Ciena’s CTO organization, he orchestrates intersections between emerging technologies and Ciena research and development groups. Prior to his current role, he was a senior advisor for the CTO at Nortel, and held other advanced technology roles during 13 years with the company, including director of broadband switching and optical Ethernet R&D. He served as Network Architect for the University of Toronto’s global bibliographic network service. Originally trained in Electrical Engineering at Ryerson University in Toronto Ontario, and is a graduate of the Executive Management school at Stanford University in Palo Alto California. He is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee medal for his service to Canada.

Moderator

Dr. Kevin Tuer, Vice President, Data and Advanced Technologies, Communitech Corp.

Kevin leads the Data and Advanced Technologies team at Communitech Corp, a private-public tech innovation hub that supports a community of over 1400 tech driven companies in the Waterloo Region. The team’s mandate is to help companies capitalize on data driven innovation and the strategic adoption of advanced technologies including AI/ML, autonomous vehicles, 5G networks and software defined networks. He has over 20 years of experience in entrepreneurial, technical and leadership roles.  Prior to his current role, Kevin was the founding Managing Director of Canada’s Open Data Exchange (ODX) and in 2009, Kevin was the founding Managing Director of the Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN). Kevin has also held several engineering and senior management positions with companies in the high-tech industry and either has served or continues to serve on various boards and committees including the Waterfront Toronto Digital Strategy Advisory Panel.

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