Keynotes

Tripti Sinha is the Chair of the ICANN Board and the Assistant Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at the University of Maryland (UMD) in the Division of Information Technology. Sinha has over three decades of progressive experience in Internet and cyber-infrastructure technologies. She has held leadership positions in engineering, operations, finance, governance, advocacy, and policy.

Jacques Latour is Chief Technology and Security Officer at CIRA. As an expert in developing innovative, cutting-edge IT solutions, Jacques has established CIRA as a global leader among ccTLD registries. He has 30+ years of experience in the private and not-for-profit sectors and as CIRA’s Chief Technology and Security Officer provides leadership and direction for the management and security of the .CA registry, its underlying DNS and CIRA’s cybersecurity services.

Speakers

Keldon Bester, Executive Director, Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, Breakout Session 1: Canadians communications policy and internet governance

Keldon Bester is the Executive Director of the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project (CAMP) and a fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). Keldon worked as a special advisor at Canada’s Competition Bureau, and as a fellow at the Open Markets Institute (OMI). Keldon holds a masters in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

@KeldonB, LinkedIn, @monopolyproject

Sue Gardner, Breakout Session 1: Canadians communications policy and internet governance

Sue Gardner is a special advisor to the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that operates Wikipedia. From 2007 until 2014 she was its Executive Director. Previously Sue was head of CBC.CA, the website for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and before that she was a journalist working in multiple media including the internet, newspapers, magazines, radio and TV. In 2011 Forbes magazine named Sue one of the world’s 100 most powerful women. Sue serves on boards and advisory committees for a half-dozen global non-profit, educational and grantmaking organizations, primarily related to technology, media, gender and digital freedoms.

Paul Samson, President, CIGI, Moderator, Breakout Session 2: The 2025 Canadian presidency of the G7: What are the digital policy priorities?

Paul Samson is President of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). He previously held senior positions in the Government of Canada, including with Global Affairs Canada and Finance Canada, and as associate deputy minister with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. He worked at the Privy Council Office in several different roles, providing advice to three different Prime Ministers. Among other positions, Paul served as a Director at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and as Canada’s deputy for finance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. He was co-chair of the G20 Framework Working Group on the global economy from 2015-2019. Earlier in his career, Paul worked with several international organizations in Geneva and held fellowships with Pacific Northwest Labs (Washington DC office), the Peace Research Institute, Oslo and was a research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Paul completed a Doctorate and an M.A. in international relations at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, and a B.A. at the University of British Columbia. He completed post-doctoral studies in global environment assessment at Harvard University.

Brenda McPhail, Executive Director, MPP in Digital Policy, McMaster University, Breakout Session 2: The 2025 Canadian presidency of the G7: What are the digital policy priorities?

Dr. Brenda McPhail is the Acting Executive Director of the Master in Public Policy in Digital Society program at McMaster University, a program designed to educate the next generation of digitally-savvy policy actors in Canada. As the former Director of the Privacy, Technology and Surveillance Program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (on leave), her work has supported litigation at courts up to the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as legislative reform, and public education relating to the ways in which privacy rights are at risk in the digital society.

@bjmcp LinkedIn