Digital Gov Leaders Summit/Bios
2024DIGITAL GOVERNMENT LEADERS SUMMIT
Biographies
The Honourable Anita Anand was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Oakville in 2019. She has previously served as Minister of Public Services and Procurement. Born and raised in rural Nova Scotia, she moved to Ontario in 1985. Minister Anand is a devoted leader with a proven record of service. Learn more.
John Hannaford was named the 25th Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet on June 24, 2023. Prior to becoming Clerk, John served as Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Canada, from 2022 to 2023, where he helped advance some of the government’s signature clean energy initiatives. Learn more.
Valeriya Ionan is the Deputy Minister for Eurointegration at the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. The Ministry, established in 2019, aims to implement the "State in a Smartphone" vision, an essential part of President Zelenskyy's Election Program. Valeriya, at the age of 28, joined the Ministry from its beginning, making her one of the youngest Deputy Ministers in the Ukrainian government. Her responsibilities within the Ministry include supervising the national program for the development of digital literacy, advocating for digital transformation among small and medium enterprises (SMEs), enabling regional digital transformation, and leading both the Eurointegration and international relations teams.
Louise McEvoy is a seasoned digital leader with extensive experience in senior digital leadership roles. Balancing her corporate success with a love for adventure and risk-taking, Louise excels both in the technology sector and the world of mountaineering. On weekends, you'll find her conquering mountain biking trails, and on vacations, she's scaling the world's highest peaks. Louise’s personal life goal was to summit Mount Everest and she stood on the top of Everest in May 2018. During this seven-week adventure, she gained valuable insights into leadership strategies that have been instrumental in her professional career, aligning her experiences in the corporate world with her remarkable feats on the world's tallest mountains.
With a passion for empowering teams, Louise leads groups of female technology executives on their first ‘14er’ in Colorado - a mountain over 14,000 feet. Louise is dedicated to helping others reach their ‘summit’ and has spoken to many groups and organizations on that topic, knowing that sometimes the hardest things in life are also the most fulfilling.
Jeremy Hansen is an experienced CF-18 fighter pilot and has been an astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) since 2009. In 2017, he became the first Canadian to be entrusted with leading a NASA astronaut class, which means that he is in charge of the training astronaut candidates from the United States and Canada. As an astronaut, he represents the CSA at NASA, speaks to young Canadians, works at NASA’s Mission Control Center as capcom—the voice between the ground and the International Space Station—and continues his training. Jeremy Hansen will fly to the Moon on the Artemis II mission, the first crewed flight test of the Orion spacecraft launching on the SLS rocket. He will become the first Canadian to ever venture to the Moon.