For any awards, carrying out fair, consistent, and accurate judging is key to ensuring the true winners are recognized. To deliver this, we have assembled a diverse and unbiased judging panel of experts. The judges are assigned categories which reflect their expertise and are asked to recuse themselves from voting in any category in which there is a conflict of interest
All Judges are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement for the purpose of preventing the unauthorized disclosure of confidential information. This includes the sharing of the information contained within the submission forms with any third parties and communicating with shortlisted nominees in any way.
A devoted manager with thirty years of experience in human resources management within large private and public corporations, Chantal Lamoureux, CPHR, is known for her enthusiasm, pragmatism and capacity to build successful business partnerships. As someone who is also proud of having created and directed multidisciplinary teams to design, deploy and assess major projects that expanded HR’s contribution to the achievement of business objectives, Chantal decided to get actively involved in developing the financial planning profession, which she feels is crucial, unique, complex and not widely enough known. Her mission is to contribute to the financial well-being of Québecers by supporting the IQPF’s mission to protect the public through relevant, effective training.
Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA)
About Claire Van Wyk-Allan
Claire Van Wyk-Allan joined AIMA in 2018 as Director, Head of Canada with over 10 years of professional experience in the retail advisor channel in both territory sales and team management.
Prior to joining AIMA, Claire was a Business Development Manager, Advisor Channel Sales at RBC Global Asset Management (RBC GAM), where she covered GTA West and was awarded for Top BDM activity in 2016.
Previously, she was the Manager, Sales Support at RBC GAM, where she managed a team of Sales Coordinators across Canada. Claire began her career at Arrow Capital, where she spent almost four years as Regional Manager, covering advisors across Ontario.
Having served on the AIMA Canada Executive Committee for almost four years, Claire has also served as Executive Liaison for the Sales Practices Committee and previously, as Co-Chair for the Events Committee.
She has also been a two-time Co-Chair for Help for Children’s Hedge Funds Care (Help For Children) Canada Gala. Claire graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a Bachelor of Management and Organizational Studies, specialising in Finance, and is a CAIA Charterholder.
Daniel Collison is the Managing Partner with financial education firm Advice2Advisors, which trains, mentors, and coach’s financial advisors of all tenures. Dan has over 35 years in the industry and spent the first 10 years of his career as a financial planner, ultimately, moving into increasingly senior managerial roles, before co-founding A2A.
Dan has degrees in history and political science from York University, has the Certified Financial Planner designation (CFP) and is a Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (TEP).
Dan regularly presents keynotes, seminars, webinars, and workshops – throughout North and South America – on all things growth-oriented for financial advisors, with specific focus on “the three confidences” of top-producers: a confident mindset, a confident business structure, and a confident growth plan.
Dan is a Board Member of the FP Foundation and past Chair of its Research Committee. He taught Personal Financial Management, in the MBA Program, at Schulich School of Business, York University, from 1998 to 2020, and has been a judge for the WP Awards since 2019.
Dan is the author of The Financial Advisor’s Guide to Excellence, Thomson Reuters (rated one of the “10 Books Financial Advisors Need to Read in 2020”, by ReminderMedia), and newly released Building Bigger & Better: Growth Strategies of Top-Producing Financial Advisors, FriesenPress, 2023. He is also a regular columnist with Nasdaq.com.
Dr. Ranjan Bhaduri is the Founder & CEO of Bodhi Research Group. Bodhi Research Group assists pensions, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and institutional investors with regards to alternative investments.
Dr. Bhaduri is recognized globally as an authority in alternative investments. Dr. Bhaduri has worked closely with many pensions, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices on a variety of portfolio matters.
Dr. Bhaduri had previously been part of an investment committee at Morgan Stanley, where he had conducted investment due diligence and helped design customized portfolios of alternatives. Dr. Bhaduri also has extensive experience with managed account platforms, including structuring and negotiations.
Dr. Bhaduri has is also a gifted educator who has guest lectured at many top universities and published several papers in industry and academic journals. Dr. Bhaduri has lectured for the Montreal Exchange on Derivatives. Dr. Bhaduri was invited by the CME to be part of a special delegation that met with regulators in Beijing and Taipei to discuss hedge fund issues. Dr. Bhaduri has held an advisory role at the East-West Center, a leading think tank on the Asia-Pacific region. He has been invited to speak in conferences internationally on advanced techniques in portfolio and risk management. Dr. Bhaduri holds both the CFA and CAIA designations.
Vice President, Head of Responsible Investing at Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO)
Board Director of the University of British Columbia (UBC) Investment Management Trust
About Hyewon Kong
Hyewon Kong is a vice president and Head of Responsible Investing at the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO), which manages over $70bn of Ontario public-sector pension funds, where she leads environmental, social and governance (ESG) and sustainable investing strategies across all asset classes. With over 20 years of experience in both corporate and investment management in Asia, Europe and North America, Hyewon has been an ambassador of sustainable investing as an experienced portfolio manager and a subject matter expert on ESG. Hyewon serves on the Board of Directors of the University of British Columbia (UBC) Investment Management Trust and on the Environmental Finance Advisory Committee at the University of Toronto. She also lectures on environmental finance and sustainable and impact investment courses. She co-founded and co-chairs Canadian Responsible Investment Working Group and has been named as Canada’s 2020 Clean 50 leaders for creating broad collaborations in the Canadian financial industry to drive a sustainability agenda.
Canadian Association of Alternative Strategies & Assets (CAASA)
About James Burron
James co-founded CAASA in response to industry support for a Canadian alternatives association to serve all aspects including: hedge / alternative strategies; liquid alternatives; private lending; private real estate; private equity; plus emerging areas where Canada is a leader such as digital assets / blockchain and robo-advisors.
Prior to CAASA, James was the Chief Operating Officer of AIMA Canada where his team of three worked with 12 committees to produce 50-60 events per annum across Canada, organized 100+ committee meetings, and increase member numbers over his 7-year tenue from 66 to 164 corporate entities. CAASA currently has more than 350 members.
James currently sits on the Canadian Investment Funds Standards Committee (CIFSC), which categorizes mutual funds and alternative mutual funds (aka liquid alternatives) for the retail space in Canada. He is also called upon by membership and industry groups to speak to risk ratings and portfolio placement of all types of alternative investments.
James also has experience in research and writing for the CAIA Association (holding the designation since 2006) as well as serving on CAIA’s exam council and as a well as other duties. He had roles in institutional sales and FoHF structuring in Seoul, South Korea, as a Product Manager at ICICI Wealth Management, and as an Investment Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities. James graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BBA (Finance).
President & Chief Executive Officer | Investment Industry Association of Canada (IIAC)
Laura Paglia has decades of specialized experience providing legal representation and advice to a broad range of participants in the financial services and capital markets industries. These include Canadian and foreign banks, insurance companies, underwriters, investment dealers, carrying brokers, exempt market dealers, and various public issuers such as investment fund managers.
Laura has also represented and advised a variety of individual professionals such as Chief Compliance Officers, Chief Executive Officers and Ultimate Designated Persons, research analysts, investment bankers, institutional traders, portfolio managers, investment and mutual fund advisors, and Boards of Directors and/or their Special Committees.
Laura is a frequent speaker and writer on topical and emerging industry issues.
Laura was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1997. She obtained a LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1994 and an LLM from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2014.
Business Finance Coach & CPA Founder Managing Director
Wealthnuvo Hannaway Business Consulting
About Lianne Hannaway
Lianne Hannaway is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), an experienced financial executive and an investor. Lianne helps first-generation business owners bringing in 6 figures or more but not seeing that in their bank account achieve financial freedom by taking control of their business finances. She is a Board Member and Treasurer at The Equality Fund, a groundbreaking collaboration that supports women’s rights organizations and feminist movements globally with a backing of $300 million from the Canadian government. She is also a board member of Kids Help Phone, Canada’s only 24/7, national support service providing professional online and telephone counselling and volunteer-led, text-based support to youth across Canada in both English and French. Previously, Lianne was an advisory partner at KPMG, and held a variety of senior finance roles at TMX Group.
Greg Pollock is the President and CEO of Advocis, The Financial Advisors Association of Canada. He is responsible for providing effective strategic leadership and direction and oversees all aspects of Advocis’s day-to-day activities. Greg is also the Chief Operating Officer of The Institute, the leading designation body in Canada for financial services practitioners in the areas of wealth transfer, estate planning and living benefits.
Greg was recognized by Wealth Professional Canada Magazine as one of the top 50 leaders of 2021 who helped the wealth management industry navigate a challenging year and was recently appointed to the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA)’s Stakeholder Advisory Committee for Financial Planners and Financial Advisors.
Pat has her own consulting business and is currently the Executive Director of the Canadian ETF Association, which was the first ETF Association in the world.
She has spent over 35 years in the Financial Services industry as a client and relationship-focused executive with an in-depth background in all aspects of the industry.
She has been and continues to be an active member on many industry committees including those at CCMA, IFIC and Fundserv and Women in ETFs.
Pat is also actively involved in her community as the Immediate past Board Chair at Community Living Dufferin, Board Member at Prosper Canada and Board member at QCC. She is also an ambassador for Citizn.
Tashia Batstone is President and CEO of FP Canada, the leading body for the financial planning profession. Previously, Ms. Batstone held senior leadership positions within the CPA profession and played a significant role in the unification of the accounting profession. She serves on multiple not-for-profit boards.
