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Charting New Horizons in an Age of Interconnected Risk

Recap: Watch the Session Videos

The Global Risk Institute marked its 15th annual summit on September 17, 2025 at the Toronto Region Board of Trade. Industry decision makers, regulatory leaders and world-renowned risk experts delivered the insights, and virtual and in-person participants engaged in collaborative discussions on key risks to the financial system and the rapidly evolving nature of today’s interconnected risk environment.

See below for full videos and descriptions of the day’s sessions.

“Dictators do not play chess. Chess is a game where all information is visible … Authoritarian regimes play poker. They bluff, they hide their cards, and they bet on our hesitation.” — Garry Kasparov, Democracy Advocate

 

“If risk is the uncertainty of outcome, then AI is the definition of risk. Nobody has a clear view of what the world will look like in ten years.” — David Latour, EVP and Chief Risk Officer, La Caisse

 

“The ability to create your own opportunities — that is a critical component to being successful in private markets.” — Sarah Butcher, Managing Director, Head of Americas Institutional Business in Canada, BlackRock

 

“We’re moving from building resiliency to leveraging it, using the strength we’ve built to adapt faster to change.” — Peter Routledge, Superintendent, OSFI 

Session Videos

Opening Remarks banner with headshot of Sonia Baxendale

The Global Risk Institute’s President and CEO kicks off the day’s discussions with a talk about science fiction becoming reality and the opportunity to build the future.

Checkmate or Stalemate banner with headshot of Garry Kasparov

Chess legend and democracy advocate Garry Kasparov talks about chess, AI, Russian aggression, western complacency, and an all-out fight for freedom.

Risk as Strategy banner with headshots of Romy Bowers, Kelly Hepher, David Latour, and Shannon McGinnis

Chief Risk Officers from leading Canadian and international organizations explore AI, geopolitics, housing risk, the evolving CRO role, and optimism in the face of complexity.

Private Markets banner with headshots of Sarah Butcher and Bis Mukerji

Experts in private markets talk about why the sector is booming, key areas of risk to watch out for, and what will drive the next phase of growth

GRI, OSFI, and Department of Finance banner with headshots of Mate Glovota, Gerard McDonald, and Alexey Rubtsov

GRI, OSFI and Department of Finance (Canada): Building Resilient Financial Institutions

Participants in the second Financial Industry Forum on Artificial Intelligence discuss the origins of this collaboration, findings of the first workshop on cybersecurity, and next steps.

Provincial Oversight in an Interconnected Risk Environment banner with headshots of Dexter John, Tolga Yalkin, and Ryan Clements

Financial regulators from BC, Ontario and Alberta talk about the evolving role of provincial oversight, key areas of concern and opportunities for harmonization.

Physical Climate Risk-Adjusted Models banner with headshots of Kathryn Bakos, Josh Picov, and Jean-Philippe Daigle

Panelists from banking, insurance and climate research share concerns about growing weather-related losses, and solutions to insurability, affordability, stranded assets and more.

Building Systemic Resilience in a Volatile World banner showing a headshot of Peter Routledge

The OSFI Superintendent updates industry stakeholders on responsible innovation, proportionality, integrity and security, stablecoins, mortgage delinquencies and AML.

Beyond the Horizon banner showing headshots of Michele Mosca, Agostino Capponi, and Cameron Schuler

Leaders in quantum cybersecurity, stablecoin and AI come together to unpack the fast-moving technology ecosystem and its implications for the future of Canada’s financial system.

Closing Insights banner showing William Bonnell headshot

Building Trust within a Rapidly Evolving Landscape – Bill Bonnell

GRI Chair Bill Bonnell wraps up a historic summit with a summary of the day’s discussions and a call to carry on the vital conversations it began.

“The crisis of trust that underlies geopolitical fragmentation is directly relevant to the financial sector, which both drives public confidence and depends on it.” — Sonia Baxendale, President and CEO, Global Risk Institute

Speakers

Sonia Baxendale headshot

Sonia
Baxendale

President and CEO, Global Risk Institute
William Bonnell headshot

William
Bonnell

Chair, Global Risk Institute
Garry Kasparov headshot

Garry
Kasparov

Democracy Advocate
Vanda Vicars headshot

Vanda
Vicars

Executive Consultant, Global Risk Institute
Michele Mosca headshot

Michele
Mosca

Co-Founder of Institute for Quantum Computing
Agostino Capponi headshot

Agostino
Capponi

Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations; Research Director of the Center for Digital Finance and Technologies, Columbia University
Cameron Schuler headshot

Cameron
Schuler

Chief Commercialization Officer and Vice President, Industry Innovation, Vector Institute
Josh Picov headshot

Josh
Picov

Executive Vice President, Global Operational and Enterprise Risk, CIBC
Kathryn Bakos headshot

Kathryn
Bakos

Managing Director, Finance and Resilience, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation
Gerard McDonald headshot

Gerard
McDonald

Executive in Residence, Global Risk Institute
David Latour headshot

David
Latour

Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, La Caisse
Kelly Hepher headshot

Kelly
Hepher

Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, IGM Financial
Shannon McGinnis headshot

Shannon
McGinnis

Executive Vice President and Deputy Chief Risk Officer, Scotiabank
Romy Bowers headshot

Romy
Bowers

Chief Risk Officer, International Monetary Fund
Sarah Butcher headshot

Sarah
Butcher

Managing Director, Head of Americas Institutional Business in Canada, BlackRock
Bis Mukerji headshot

Bis
Mukerji

Group Head of Risk, RBC Wealth Management
Alexey Rubstov headshot

Alexey
Rubtsov

Senior Research Associate, GRI, Principal Strategic Advisor, Department of Finance Canada
Mate Glavota headshot

Mate
Glavota

Executive Director, Applied Research, Data, and Analytics, OFSI
Dexter John headshot

Dexter
John

CEO, FSRAO
Tolga Yalkin headshot

Tolga
Yalkin

CEO, Superintendent of FIs, BCFSA
Ryan Clements headshot

Ryan
Clements

Director, Advanced Research and Knowledge Management, ASC
JP Daigle headshot

Jean-Philippe
Daigle

CRO, Property and Casualty Insurance, Desjardins
Peter Routledge headshot

Peter
Routledge

Superintendent of Financial Institutions, OSFI

Thank You to Our Sponsors

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Lead Event Sponsor

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Education Sponsor

Sonia Baxendale

President and CEO, Global Risk Institute
Sonia Baxendale headshot

Sonia Baxendale is President & CEO of Global Risk Institute (GRI). In this role, Sonia brings together leaders from industry, academia and government to focus on emerging risk issues.

Sonia has extensive experience as an executive and non-executive in the financial services industry globally.

Sonia is an active corporate director who sits on the boards of Laurentian Bank, Definity Financial Corp., and Intermediate Capital Group (ICG). She is past Chair of the Board of SickKids Foundation. In 2023, she was appointed to a three-member investment committee overseeing the $23.4 billion First Nations Child and Family Services settlement fund.

Prior to joining GRI, Sonia held senior roles at CIBC, including Senior Executive Vice President and President of CIBC Retail Markets, where she led the Retail & Commercial Banking and Wealth Management businesses. She played a key role in developing strategy and direction for CIBC. Prior to CIBC, she held various positions with American Express Canada and Saatchi & Saatchi.

Sonia is a graduate of the University of Toronto, where she was named the 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.

William Bonnell

Chair, Global Risk Institute
William Bonnell headshot

William (Bill) Bonnell currently serves as a Strategic Advisor to the CEO of National Bank of Canada. Prior to this role, he was the bank’s Chief Risk Officer from 2012 until 2024, overseeing the management of financial and non-financial risks across the bank.

Since joining National Bank in 2001, Bill has held successive leadership positions in credit risk management, proprietary trading, and market risk management. Before joining the bank, he worked in Toronto, London, and Dublin in a variety of risk management, capital markets, and management roles within the banking industry.

Throughout his career, Bill has been actively engaged in various industry, academic, and non-profit boards. He has served as a member and Chair of the boards of both the International Financial Risk Institute (Geneva) and the Risk Management Association (Philadelphia). He has also served on the board of the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Advisory Board of Rotman’s Master of Financial Risk Management program.

Bill holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business, a Bachelor’s Degree from Bishop’s University, and has completed studies at EM Lyon Business School. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), and holds the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designation from the Global Association of Risk Professionals.

Garry Kasparov​

Democracy Advocate

Born in Azerbaijan, in the Soviet Union, Garry Kasparov became the under-18 chess champion of the USSR at the age of 12 and the world under-20 champion at 17. He came to international fame at the age of 22 as the youngest world chess champion in history in 1985. Kasparov’s famous matches against the IBM super-computer Deep Blue in 1996-97 were key to bringing artificial intelligence, and chess, into the mainstream.

Still ranked #1 in the world, Kasparov retired from professional chess in 2005 to help lead the Russian pro-democracy opposition against the rising dictatorship of Vladimir Putin. In 2012, Kasparov was named chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation, succeeding Václav Havel. HRF promotes individual liberty worldwide and organizes the annual Oslo Freedom Forum. Facing imminent arrest during Putin’s crackdown, Kasparov moved from Moscow to New York City in 2013. In 2017, he founded the Renew Democracy Initiative, dedicated to promoting the principles of the free world through education and advocacy.

In 2016, he was named a Security Ambassador by Avast Software, where he discusses cybersecurity and the digital rights. The U.S.-based Kasparov Chess Foundation non-profit promotes the teaching of chess in education systems around the world.

Kasparov has been a regular contributor to many major publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, and The New York Daily News. His Twitter and Facebook boast over a million followers. Kasparov speaks frequently to business audiences around the world on strategy, decision-making, politics, and artificial intelligence.

Kasparov’s book ‘How Life Imitates Chess‘ on strategy and decision-making is available in over 20 languages. He is the author of two acclaimed series of chess books, ‘My Great Predecessors‘ and ‘Modern Chess‘. Kasparov’s prescient book, ‘Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped‘, was released in 2015. His latest book on AI and the human-machine relationship is ‘Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins’ (2017).

Vanda Vicars

Executive Consultant, Global Risk Institute
Vanda Vicars headshot

Vanda Vicars is an Executive Consultant with GRI, focusing on strategic projects for the organization. She was previously Chief Operating Officer and Corporate Secretary from 2019 to 2024, and led Corporate Services, Education and Events, Marketing and Communications, and Research.

A respected C-suite executive with 30 years of executive leadership experience in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Sector, Vanda has held senior roles at leading organizations including CEO, Canada Infrastructure Services, Capgemini; President, Capgemini Canada; Senior Vice President of ICT Solutions, Bell Canada; and Vice-President Technical Support, IBM Canada.

Vanda oversees the cyber risk file at GRI, and delivers board-level education on the topic of cybersecurity oversight. Over the course of her career, she and her teams have delivered project and cyber services to the financial sector and various government entities.

Holding a BBA, Management Science from Bishop’s University, Vanda completed the CERT Certificate in Cybersecurity Oversight from Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute. She attended the Director’s Education Program at University of Toronto and holds the ICD.D designation. 

Vanda participated in the Fellows program of the International Women’s Foundation (IWF) at Harvard Business School (U.S.) and the Changes in Global Leadership Program at Cambridge’s Judge Business School (UK). She has been an advocate for women and diversity in the ICT sector as an executive coach, mentor, and leader of diversity programs at IBM and Bell Canada.

Michele Mosca

CEO and Co-founder, evolutionQ
Michele Mosca headshot

Dr. Mosca is CEO and co-founder of evolutionQ, a start-up that provides scalable defense-in-depth with post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and quantum key distribution (QKD) software solutions for cryptographic resilience and quantum-safe security. He is a world-renowned expert in cryptography, at the intersection of quantum computing and cybersecurity. Dr. Mosca has been instrumental in promoting the importance of cryptography as a critical cybersecurity control protecting both data and communications.

Prior to evolutionQ, Dr. Mosca was a founder of the world-leading Institute for Quantum Computing, a Professor in the Department of Combinatorics & Optimization at the University of Waterloo, and a founding member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. His work on quantum computing has been published widely in top journals and textbooks.

Dr. Mosca worked on cryptography during his BMath at the University of Waterloo and his MSc at Oxford, and obtained his Doctorate at Oxford in Quantum Computer Algorithms. He was appointed as a Knight in the Order of Merit by the Government of Italy in 2018, recognizing his contributions in quantum information science and digital security, as well as teaching and outreach.

Karrie Van Belle

Chief Operating Officer, Global Risk Institute
Karrie Van Belle headshot

Karrie Van Belle is a seasoned business executive and strategic leader with over 25 years expertise in the financial services industry having held roles leading marketing, communications digital operations and investment product teams.  

Karrie most recently held the role of Chief Marketing & Innovation Officer at AGF Investments Inc. where she led the relaunch of the firm’s brand and was a strategic driver of its digital transformation agenda and product innovation growth plans, focused on driving efficiencies and enhanced client experiences for the firm. She has gained invaluable and varied experiences through her career having held roles at BlackRock Canada, Saint Elizabeth Health Care, Edward Jones and Canda Trust. 

Karrie holds a degree in Communica­tions from Simon Fraser University and recently completed the IVEY Academy at Ivey Business School’s Digital Leaders Advanced Impact Certification.