How GenAI Will Transform Financial Products

Co-presented by:

Keri Bush, Global Conduct Risk and Chief Compliance Officer, Sun Life Canada

Christine Farrugia, Vice President of Client Strategy & Experience, Wealthsimple

Kathryn Hume, Vice President Digital Channels Technology, RBC

Brian Keng, Adjunct Professor, Rotman School of Management

Mahima Poddar, Senior Vice President & Group Head of Personal Banking, Equitable Bank

Amy Young, Director, Strategic Partnerships, Financial Services, Microsoft

With the rapid transformation of access to insights through AI, financial institutions are at a critical juncture where they must evaluate their approach to designing and delivering products across diverse customer segments. AI technologies are reshaping the landscape for financial products, and machine learning is opening the door to more innovation and new operating models.

Global estimates point to the finance sector doubling its spend on AI tools and talent by 2027. But, how will these investments practically translate into what is available to customers? What will it mean for how companies conceive, design and deliver their products? Featuring executives from Microsoft, CanadaLife, WealthSimple, RBC and EQ Bank, this panel will explore these questions and bring forward insights on how to AI is transforming the landscape for financial products.

Keri Bush has been with Canada Life for more than 25 years, where she’s known for her ability to execute for results and position teams to win. She pairs broad business knowledge with good instincts to drive the business forward - with passion and energy to spare!

Keri leads Canada Life’s Financial Solutions Centre, where they’re working in new ways to meet clients’ changing expectations and offering different ways to access advice, all while enabling partner advisors to build better businesses.

Christine Farrugia is Vice-President of Client Strategy & Experience at Wealthsimple. She oversees customer support for Wealthsimple's three million clients every day. This includes the technology and systems used by customer-facing teams and product specialists who share client feedback with the rest of the company. Prior to joining Wealthsimple, Christine was a senior leader at Loblaw Companies Ltd working in a variety of roles including customer insights, loyalty and mergers and acquisitions. She holds a Bachelors of Arts with Honours from Queen's University in Applied Economics and an MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. Most importantly, Christine is mom to two amazing kids - Oliver and Harper.

Kathryn Hume is Vice President of Digital Channels Technology at the Royal Bank of Canada. She has led multiple technology teams at RBC, including the personal investments development team and the Borealis AI machine learning team. Prior to joining RBC, Kathryn held leadership positions at Integrate.ai and Fast Forward Labs, where she helped over 50 Fortune 500 organizations develop and implement AI programs. She is a widely respected author and educator on technology and innovation, with work appearing at TED, HBR, the Globe and Mail, Harvard, MIT, the University of Toronto and more. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Stanford University and speaks seven languages.

Brian Keng is a Research Director at Borealis AI, a research centre created by Royal Bank of Canada, and an Adjunct Professor in Data Science at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. At Borealis, he leads the incubator program building out innovative AI-enabled products and capabilities for the financial services industry. At Rotman, he plays a key role in shaping data science education and research through his work with the TD Management Data and Analytics Lab and the Master of Management Analytics program, and by working directly with faculty and students. Before joining Borealis, Brian was the Chief Data Scientist at Kinaxis Inc. Brian earned his PhD and MASc in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto and his BASc in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Mahima Poddar is Senior Vice-President & Group Head of Personal Banking at Equitable Bank, where she leads EQ Bank - Canada's leading digital bank - the Single-Family mortgage businesses, the decumulation lines of business in Reverse Mortgages and CSV Lending, Marketing, and the distribution of deposit products through the Financial Planning channel. Mahima joined Equitable in 2016 to lead the Corporate Development team, grew her mandate to include digital banking and marketing in 2019, and eventually to lead the Personal Banking division in 2020. Previously, Mahima was a long-time management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. She holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and an HBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University.

Amy Young (MBA '08) is an Industry Advisor in Microsoft’s Worldwide FSI team, where her mandate is to help the firm’s largest Wealth & Asset Management clients realize the benefits of digital transformation. She has a 30-year career spanning equity research, corporate strategy and management consulting across the financial services, retail and energy industries. Amy holds an MBA from the Rotman School of Management, a BA in English from the University of Toronto and is a CFA Charterholder. She also chairs the Fintech Committee at CFA Society New York.

This event is available to attend in-person.

Rotman Events is committed to accessibility for all people. If you have any access needs or if there are any ways we can support your full participation in this session, please email [[email protected]] no later than 2 weeks in advance of the event and we will be glad to work with you to make the appropriate arrangements.

• The event will be hosted in Desautels Hall at the Rotman School of Management (105 Saint George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3E6).

• Refunds will only be issued for cancellations received in writing NO LATER than 24 hours prior to the event. Please email [email protected] for processing.

Questions: [email protected], Mandi Gosling

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Rotman School of Management, 105 Saint George Street, Toronto, Canada