Sonia Baxendale
President and Chief Executive Officer
Sonia Baxendale is a highly respected executive who has more than 20 years’ experience in senior leadership roles in the financial services industry. Ms. Baxendale serves on the Board of Directors for a number of Canadian and international corporate and not-for-profit organizations. As the President and CEO of GRI, Ms. Baxendale leads the premier risk management organization for the financial services industry globally.
In this role, Ms. Baxendale brings together leaders from industry, academia and government to focus on emerging risk management issues. The global pandemic has brought to the forefront a confluence of domestic and global concerns – geopolitical tensions, climate change, systemic racism, social and economic disparities. Under Ms. Baxendale’s leadership, GRI has stepped up to develop strategic research and education. She has brought together experts from across the country and the globe to focus on long-term, sustainable solutions for Canada’s economic recovery.
In addition to her role with GRI, Ms. Baxendale is a Director on the Board of Laurentian Bank, Foresters Financial, RSA Group PLC, and The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited. She is Chair of the Board of SickKids Foundation and a member of the Board of Trustees for the Hospital for Sick Children.
Prior to joining GRI, Ms. Baxendale was President of CIBC Retail Markets where she led Retail and Wealth Management businesses. Ms. Baxendale played a key role in developing strategy and direction for CIBC and held various leadership roles including Senior Executive Vice-President, CIBC Wealth Management, Executive Vice-President, Asset Management, Card Products and Collections, and Executive Vice-President of Global Private Banking and Investment Management Services. Prior to CIBC, Ms. Baxendale held various positions with American Express Canada and Saatchi & Saatchi.
Ms. Baxendale is a graduate of the University of Toronto, where she was named University of Toronto, Victoria College Alumni of Distinction in 2017. She was named one of the “Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada” for three years in a row and then joined the ranks of the Top 100 Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2000, she was recognized as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40.
Alyson Bailey-Flynn, Guest Speaker
Global Head & Managing Director Capital Markets, Internal Audit, RBC
Alyson is the Global Head & Managing Director Capital Markets, Internal Audit at RBC. She is responsible for the global audit activities covering planning, execution, and reporting for the Capital Markets business, including trading, corporate and investment banking, operations, compliance and technology.
Prior to joining RBC, Alyson held various positions at another financial institution where she was most recently SVP, Operational Risk overseeing operational risk methodology, oversight and third party risk management. She was previously SVP, GRM Data and Analytics, where she led data and artificial intelligence risk management, and held positions in GRM as well as Regional Chief Auditor, for UK and Europe for a number of years. Alyson started her career in Capital Markets in financial engineering, where highlights include implementation of a new counterparty credit risk model and technology, credit derivatives front office technology build out, and analytics coverage across a number of businesses including interest rate and equity derivatives.
Alyson earned her Masters of Mathematical Finance from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Math from St. Mary’s University.
Gerard McDonald
Managing Director, Head of Research
Gerard McDonald is a leader with experience in risk management, governance, and compliance. In his role with GRI, he leads both internal and external research projects. He actively engages with members to optimally allocate research resources, manages research partnerships in Canada and abroad, and ensures the delivery of industry-leading content.
With experience in the financial sector spanning more than two decades, prior to coming to GRI, McDonald held a number of senior positions over 17 years with BMO Financial Group, including Vice-President, Risk and Compliance, Canadian Personal and Commercial Banking, from 2018 to 2022. Earlier in his career, he worked as an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company.
McDonald holds a Ph.D. in Economics and an M.Phil in Economics, and was an SSHRC Doctoral Fellow, and Cowles Prize Fellow. He sits on the board of the Revue Film Society and has previously served on the board of Howard Park Children’s Centre.
Anthony Peccia
Executive in Residence
Anthony Peccia is a highly respected expert in the field of risk management and capital markets, with a distinguished career as a senior executive and educator. He has held key Managing Director positions at several leading global banks, including Citibank, CIBC, BMO, and RBC, where he was responsible for chairing the Risk Committees and the Cyber Risk Committees and for overseeing the management of credit, market, liquidity, operational, and pension fund risks. He has led the creation and management of new departments, including those focused on Market Risk, Operational Risk, the Option Hedging Group, Strategic Investment Group, and Treasury Strategy Group.
Mr. Peccia has held leadership roles in asset liability management, capital market financing, corporate insurance, structured derivatives, and securitization at several global banks, and as a consultant has provided expert consultation to major international banks in the development of risk management frameworks and strategies. He started his career as a US equity trader at a major asset management firm.
He developed the first industry operational risk measurement model and founded the Industry Working Group on Operational Risk, which included 15 of the largest global banks. The group provided consultation to the Basel Committee as it developed a regulatory approach to operational risk management, and most of its recommendations were incorporated into Basel II.
Mr. Peccia is also an accomplished educator, teaching advanced risk management and financial innovation MBA-level courses at leading universities and executive programs in Canada, the US, the UK, Italy, and China. He has published articles and chapters on risk management and is a frequent keynote speaker at major risk management and fintech conferences. He has also produced two conferences on Machine Learning Startups and Innovation in Financial Services.
He holds an MBA and MSC in Theoretical Physics
Michael Stramaglia
Executive in Residence
Michael Stramaglia was appointed as the Global Risk Institute’s first Executive in Residence in January 2014. He is the President and Founder of Matrisc Advisory Group Inc. (a risk management consulting firm) and serves as Program Director for the SEEC Centre of Excellence in Governance, Risk Management and Control at the Schulich School of Business.
He is currently an independent corporate director for the Equitable Bank, the Economical Insurance Group, Foresters Financial and Munich Re Canada. He also serves as an independent member of the Province of Ontario Internal Audit Committee.
Mr. Stramaglia has over 30 years of professional and leadership experience, including over 10 years with Sun Life Financial (SLF) where he served as a member of the International Executive Team and led the development of one of the insurance industry’s leading ERM practices as Executive Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer for SLF’s global operations. He joined SLF in 2002 following its acquisition of Clarica, where Mr. Stramaglia held the position of Executive Vice-President and Chief Investment Officer and was also head of the International Reinsurance Business. Prior to joining Clarica, Mr. Stramaglia worked for over 13 years with the Canadian operations of the worldwide Zurich Financial Services Group, where he held a number of senior executive positions including Chief Actuary, CFO and President & CEO of the Zurich Life Insurance Company of Canada.
He has also provided interim senior executive services, and his mandates in this area have included serving as Co-Interim President & CEO of an international life insurance and asset management organization and an extended consulting assignment serving as the acting Chief Risk Officer for one of Canada’s largest credit unions.
Mr. Stramaglia is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst. He holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors and an Honours Bachelor of Mathematics Degree from the University of Waterloo.
Lois Tullo
Executive in Residence
Lois Tullo has been an Executive in Residence since January 2017. She is a Canadian expert in the research and management of non-financial risk. She is CRO & CCO at Novera Capital Inc. Novera Capital is a Virtual Currency capital firm focusing in the area of providing liquidity to the market through synthetic derivatives. She has been teaching risk management and financial services at the Schulich School of Business for the past 22 years at the executive, MBA, and undergraduate level.
She is the author of “Back to the Future: 2007 to 2030”, “The Global Risks and Trends Framework” and “Risk Management – Canadian Best Practices, How did they get there?” Schulich has awarded her the John Peace Prize for outstanding contribution to teaching.
Ms. Tullo was previously CRO & CCO at Smart Contracts Capital Inc. and BlockMine Development Inc. SSC/BMD was developing a blockchain platform to issue Regulated Security Tokens (STO’s). She was CFO at CIBC Finance Inc, responsible for Finance, Treasury, HR and interim risk management. Director of HR, Finance and Business Process Redesign at Unitel Communications. She was a management consultant at Nolan, Norton Canada/KPMG where she consulted on the link between business strategy and information technology architecture. Ms. Tullo worked in Ethiopia with Food for the Hungry, a relief and development organization. At TCPL, she provided systems design and data analysis.
Ms. Tullo is a CPA, C.A. and she articled with Clarkson Gordon Toronto (E&Y) and PWC in Calgary, she has an EMBA from Ivey School of Business, a B.Comm from the University of Saskatchewan, and holds her C.C.O and ICD.D designations. Ms. Tullo is currently the Chair of Urban Promise, JLT & Associates, vice chair of The Richview Residence Foundation, and a former board director for Jameson Bank, The Boulevard Club, and the Girl Guides of Canada.