CSPS Digital Academy Events/Succeeding in a Digital World - Speaker Biographies

Date and time: March 16, 2021 | 12:15 pm to 3:30 pm (ET)

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Speaker Biographies

	Taki Sarantakis President, Canada School of Public Service Taki Sarantakis has been President of the Canada School of Public Service since July 2018, having previously served as Associate Secretary of the Treasury Board at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. Mr. Sarantakis spent most of his career at Infrastructure Canada, including as Assistant Deputy Minister of Policy and Communications. In 2011 Mr. Sarantakis was awarded Canada's Public Service Award of Excellence in Public Policy, and in 2013 he was a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Prior to joining the federal government, Mr. Sarantakis was a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. from York University in Toronto, as well as an Executive Certificate in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is a graduate of the Rotman School of Management's Institute of Corporate Directors Education Program, holding the ICD.D designation.
	Neil Bouwer Vice-President, Canada School of Public Service Neil Bouwer has also served as an Assistant Deputy Minister at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Natural Resources Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and the Privy Council Office of Canada; and in executive positions at the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, Human Resources and Social Development Canada and the Business Development Bank of Canada. He has also worked at the Department of Finance and Western Economic Diversification Canada, and has Economics degrees from McGill University and St. Thomas University. Neil actively supports the Government of Canada policy and data communities, the Advanced Policy Analyst Program and the Free Agent HR Program.
	Daria Ahrensmeier Adjunct Professor and Educational Consultant, Simon Fraser University Daria Ahrensmeier is a theoretical physicist specializing in physics education and educational development at Simon Fraser University. She did her PhD in particle physics and has postdoctoral experience in adiabatic quantum computing. She has taught students in physics, engineering, mathematics, and other sciences at half a dozen universities, always aiming to improve student learning with new teaching tools, formats, and technologies. Her educational development work ranges from course and program design to professional development for instructors at various stages of their careers. Currently, Daria serves as the chair of the program development committee for the new Quantum Algorithms Institute hosted by SFU and is working with an interdisciplinary network of colleagues to create inspiring new learning experiences.
	Michele Mosca Co-Founder and Professor, Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo Dr. Mosca is a founder of the Institute for Quantum Computing, Professor in the Department of Combinatorics & Optimization at the University of Waterloo, and a founding member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He is globally recognized for his drive to help academia, industry and government prepare our cyber systems to be safe in an era with quantum computers. He co-founded evolutionQ Inc. to provide services and products that enable organizations to evolve their quantum-vulnerable systems and practices to quantum-safe ones. He was a founder of the ETSI-IQC workshop series in Quantum-Safe Cryptography. He co-founded softwareQ Inc. to help organizations benefit from the power of quantum computers. He worked on cryptography during his BMath (Waterloo) and MSc (Oxford) and obtained his Doctorate (Oxford) on Quantum Computer Algorithms. His research interests include quantum computation and cryptographic tools designed to be safe against quantum technologies.
	Andrew Fursman Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, 1Qbit Andrew Fursman is a Co-Founder of 1QBit and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Andrew was a Co-Founder of Satellogic Nano-Satellites, and Co-Founder of Cloudtel Communications. Andrew sits on the World Economic Forum Computing Futures Council and the IEEE Quantum Computing Standards Committee. Andrew is a fellow at the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia, as well, a faculty member at Singularity University.