Sharka Chobot, Chief Transformation Officer Neural Impact Inc.

Sharka Chobot is the Chief Transformation Officer of Neural Impact, a sales and marketing consulting agency that applies behavioral economics, neuroscience and persuasion psychology to help Microsoft partners increase and accelerate customer acquisition. She brings over 30 years of innovative product design, packaging, pricing and GTM knowledge to partners committed to improving customer acquisition effectiveness and launching cloud solutions.

David Priemer, Founder and Chief Sales ScientistCerebralSelling.com

From his early days tinkering with test tubes and differential equations as an award-winning scientist to leading top performing sales teams at high growth tech start-ups, David Priemer brings a lifelong passion for uncovering the hidden insights in the world around us as the founder of Cerebral Selling. Often referred to as the "Sales Professor", Priemer helps organizations supercharge revenue growth, people development, and culture by combining core principles of science, empathy, and execution. The result? An empowered organization of modern sellers who think like their customers, learn fast, and win! He has held several executive leadership positions at leading technology companies including Salesforce, where he was the Vice President of Commercial Sales and creator of the Sales Leadership Academy program.

He holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry and Atmospheric Science from York University and a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto. When he's not thinking about Sales, David loves to cook, write, and spend some quality family time with his wife and three girls.

Karl W. Palachuk Entrepreneur, Business Coach, Community Leader in the SMB IT Network

Karl Palachuk has been an IT Consultant since 1995 and is one of the pioneers of the managed services business model. He has built and sold two successful managed service businesses in Sacramento, CA. He is the author of seventeen books, including Managed Services in a Month and the four-volume Managed Services Operations Manual.

Karl now provides training, coaching, and consulting services to IT professionals of all sizes. He is the host of the SMB Community Podcast and maintains four blogs, including the popular Small Biz Thoughts blog at https://www.smallbizthoughts.com/ .

Mark Stuyt Founder and Chief Engagement Officer
Neural Impact Inc.

Mark Stuyt is the Founder and Chief Engagement Officer of Neural Impact, a sales and marketing consulting agency that applies behavioral economics, neuroscience and persuasion psychology to help Microsoft and its partners radically improve their cloud product development, GTM and customer acquisition strategies.

As the primary content architect for many of Microsoft’s global cloud initiatives (Cloud SureStep, Road to Repeatability), Mark has been deeply involved in partner business model change and cloud transformation from the very beginning. Having worked onsite with hundreds of Microsoft partners globally, Mark brings a wealth of real-world experience and insight into how to adjust customer acquisition strategies and tactics to align with a radically different set of customer buying behaviors.

Shane Gibson Author, Speaker, Social Selling Thought Leader

Shane Gibson is an international speaker and author on social media marketing, social selling and sales performance. He has addressed over 100,000 people at conferences and events over the past 20 years in North America, Southern Africa, India, Dubai, Malaysia and South America. He is also the Co-Founder and Facilitator of the Online Professional Sales Certificate Program at Langara College and has been named #5 on the Forbes.com list of the Top 30 Social Sales People in the World.

His extensive list of speaking and training clients include organizations such as Ford Motor Company, CPA Canada, BMO Financial, and dozens of entrepreneurs and executives in several different industries.

Gibson is the author of Sociable! a book about how social media is turning sales and marketing upside down, Closing Bigger: The Field Guide to Closing Bigger Deals and Guerrilla Social Media Marketing, co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson. He has published articles in CMA Magazine, the Financial Post, the Globe and Mail, and Entrepreneur.com.

Marc Gordon Marketing Specialist

Marc is a specialist in showing businesses how to create remarkable customer experiences even before any communication takes place. He does this through a number of marketing and branding methods he has developed over his 25 years in business and as founder of his own agency. Marc has been referred to as “Canada’s Marketing Superstar” by the Oprah Winfrey Network. Since 2003, Marc has written, spoken, and consulted on how companies cultivate or ruin relationships through marketing and customer service. His understanding of how people subconsciously create expectations based on marketing and personal experiences has made him a sought after resource. His clients include Canada Post, The Canadian Securities Exchange, Johnson & Johnson, and presidents and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

Marie Wiese Senior Marketing Executive & Author

Marie Wiese is a marketing executive with 30 years’ experience in sales and marketing focused on the technology and professional services sectors. As President and Founder of Marketing CoPilot Inc., an award-winning inbound marketing agency, Marie delivers keynote speeches and workshops to organizations to help educate people on digital marketing. She is a Growth Coach at the Innovation Factory and Spark Centre helping mentor start-ups on go-to-market strategies. She is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and a member of the Canadian Board of CompTIA. She shares her knowledge extensively on the marketingcopilot.com blog and in her latest book, You Can’t Be Everywhere, which won the Gold Award at the 2017 International Stevie Awards for Best Business Book of the Year.

Julian Lee President @ TechnoPlanet Productions

Julian Lee has been the President of TechnoPlanet for the past 25+ years and has been in the IT industry since 1984. He founded the first North American IT distributor to expand across Europe in 1987. His company is primarily in the business of helping vendors build and perfect their channel partner ecosystems. His latest mission “Best Managed IT Companies” is to help channel partners to improve their best business practices and become a bigger, better, stronger and smarter company. Over the years, he has worked closely with over 500 IT vendors and thousands of VARs. Today, his network spans 6 countries and over 65,000 VARs and MSPs as well as over 4,000 vendors. To learn more about his businesses, please visit www.technoplanet.com

Peter Jensen Founder @ Performance Coaching Inc

Peter Jensen is a dynamic speaker with a PhD in Sport Psychology. An authority on leadership, he is a renowned innovator – bringing coaching and personal high performance to corporations worldwide. He has attended eight Olympic games as a member of the Canadian Olympic team, is a top-rated instructor at the Queen’s Smith School of Business, is the founder of Performance Coaching Inc., and has authored three books including Thriving in a 24-7 World.

Jim Hamilton Vice President, Member Communities @ CompTIA

Jim oversees the development and management activities of CompTIA’s member communities. In his role, Jim coordinates with each group’s chair, members and association representatives to ensure they have the tools and support needed to achieve their goals and uncover future opportunities. He was formerly executive director of MSP Partners, an organization that delivered award-winning managed services education to the IT channel prior to being acquired by CompTIA. Under his leadership, the association grew its membership to more than 5,000 MSPs and more than 40 vendor partners. He also previously led the sales operations team for Symbium Corporation, built IT environments for Ceyba and Cambrian Systems, and managed enterprise systems at Nortel and Newbridge Networks.

Peter Cassar Co-Founder & CEO @ SherWeb

When Peter founded SherWeb in 1998 with his brother Matthew, they correctly envisioned that the Internet would play a key role in how businesses and professionals communicate. Since that time, they have been able to grow SherWeb from a small basement operation to a market leader with more than 40,000 customers in over 100 countries. The company’s dot-com survival is a testimony to their innovative approach and willingness to break boundaries. Peter has been involved in the information technology industry for over 20 years, and his technical and business knowledge of the industry allows SherWeb to stand out in a highly-competitive field.

Pascal Karsenty Managing Director @ Elliot Jaxx

Pascal is the Managing Director and lead consultant at Elliot Jaxx, a firm dedicated to think, design and deliver skill enhancing workshops for the most demanding situations (and people). He is as cool, calm and collected as they come. Yet when it comes to leading a workshop he’s a dynamic force to be reckoned with. He’s extremely focused and, some say, a bit obsessive. As an example of this, when his team talks about the design of a client’s workshop, when most agree on an idea, he’s known to say: “It’s a good idea. Now what would be an even better idea?” Detailed oriented doesn’t even begin to describe how Pascal works. Having delivered workshops in 14 different countries, his finger is always on the pulse of what’s trending around the world.

Ian Khan Technology Futurist

A TEDx Speaker & Technology Author, Ian has published several books, including Cloud Wars, The Internet of Things & the Future of Innovation and Make Me Like You. Ian is a frequent contributor to industry publications, including McGraw Hill Education, Huffington Post, & TechVibes. He also speaks at many industry events throughout the year and recently participated in Cloud Expo, BigData TechCon and Big Data Expo.

Rick McCutcheon Dynamics 365 CRM MVP and Sales Process Expert

Rick has been involved with the CRM Industry for over 20 years. He currently leads a CRM Coaching Practice specializing in Sales Process Design and Social Selling. Rick holds the prestigious designations of Dynamics CRM MVP and CSP - Certified Sales Professional. He is a much sought-after workshop leader drawing on his personal experience of working directly on hundreds of CRM and Salesforce Automation initiatives. As a professional speaker, he has delivered practical yet innovative messages on CRM and Sales Productivity to thousands of business professionals ranging from the SMB Marketplace to Major International Corporations. Rick frequently speaks at corporate events and at these leading industry conferences, CRMUG Summit, ExtremeCRM and CRM Evolution.

Guillaume Boisvert Security & Compliance Product Director @ SherWeb

Guillaume currently heads SherWeb’s security and compliance product portfolio, and was instrumental in commercializing the company’s public and private cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service solutions. With over 15 years of experience in developing and marketing web services for both B2B and B2C platforms, he has an extensive background in all things IT. Guillaume willingly shares his practical knowledge and experience of the industry in his own unique straightforward style infused with a wry sense of humor. He holds a degree in CIS and has business training from McGill University.

Jason Brown VP of Products @ SherWeb

Jason has spearheaded SherWeb’s global product strategy, specifically for products such as VOIP and Office 365. Drawing on his solid background in product, marketing and channel operations, he has been very successful in creating products and services for SherWeb’s partners and direct customer channels. It was largely through Jason’s efforts that SherWeb was able to increase sales and position itself among the best partners in North America for Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider program. Prior to joining SherWeb, Jason was a Product Manager at Melbourne IT, Australia’s largest hosting provider. He has more than 17 years’ experience in IT and online services and holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia.

Pierre Emond VP of Global Sales @ SherWeb

Pierre is responsible for managing SherWeb’s direct and channel partner sales around the world. His strong background in sales, marketing and business development gives him the ideal perspective to build solid relationships with our customers and key industry players. Pierre has more than 25 years’ experience in Information Technology and Telecommunications. His profile includes periods as a business owner and an executive for small- and medium-sized businesses. Before coming to SherWeb, Pierre was an executive for large corporations such as McAfee, Microsoft and eBay.

Christina DiAdamo National Product Marketing
Manager @ Microsoft

As Microsoft Canada’s marketing lead for Office 365 in Small, Medium and Corporate business, Christina spends her day thinking about how to empower Canadians with technology that will help them be more productive and collaborative. In her 4 years at Microsoft, Christina has led marketing in the advertising and education industries. Ask Christina about: modern workplace, collaboration tools, and all things Office 365.

Jared Bernatt Senior Product Marketing
Manager @ Microsoft

Jared Bernatt manages Microsoft’s Windows 10 Commercial Marketing for Partners and Small and Medium Corporate Business across Canada. An 8 year Microsoft Veteran, Jared has held roles in Customer and Partner Satisfaction, Business Planning and Operations. Prior to Microsoft, Jared held a variety of marketing roles at Hershey in Canada and the United States. Jared is passionate about working with Partners and Customers to ensure they reach their potential and enhance their lives by leveraging the best technology has to offer.

Arturo Quiroga Cloud Solution Architect (CSA) – Apps & Infra in Azure

Arturo is a Cloud Solutions Architect with Microsoft Canada, in the One Commercial Partner (OCP) team. He specializes in Azure IaaS and PaaS. He has a Master’s Degree in Computer Science Specializing in AI. His desire to learn and to teach drives his engagements with customers and partners. He has extensive experience in Microsoft and Linux technologies. Arturo covers areas like Azure Service Fabric, Micro Services, Azure Functions, Containers, IoT event ingestion/persistence/visualization, and the typical Azure infrastructure and Web Apps topics.

Vadim Vladimirskiy CEO & Co-Founder @ Nerdio

As a creative technologist with an aptitude for business, Vadim Vladimirskiy is the head honcho at Nerdio. He was the key driver behind the evolution of Nerdio, seeking to bring ITaaS to the masses in a cost-effective, standardized package. With over a decade of impressive IT experience and education, Vadim has applied his ever-growing knowledge to many tech roles. Though he met many skeptics along the way, Vadim has persevered to successfully build an innovative, high-growth business, with a culture that can’t be beat.

David Geevaratne Director of Sales, Americas @ BitTitan

David Geevaratne joined the BitTitan team in October 2017. Prior to BitTitan, Geevaratne co-founded New Signature, a leading cloud-first, full-service Microsoft solution provider, focused on delivering transformative business solutions. Under his guidance, New Signature received numerous accolades for its managed service successes, including the distinction as the only two-time Microsoft U.S. Partner of the Year Award winner. With more than 15 years of IT management and product experience, Geevaratne has a holistic understanding of the Microsoft partner ecosystem, which comprises a large portion of BitTitan’s 50,000 customers worldwide. His uniquely hands-on approach to sales and service matches BitTitan’s commitment to every customer and end-user.