Keynote Speakers
Location: DCC 208
Brian Lesser
Chief Information Officer, Toronto Metropolitan University
Brian Lesser is Toronto Metropolitan University's chief information officer (CIO). Brian helped develop the university’s first identity management system, establish an e-learning support team and was a founding member of the university's Digital Media Zone (DMZ) steering committee. The DMZ is TMUs startup incubator and accelerator. Brian is a board member of the Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, manages the Canadian University Council of Chief Information Officers' (CUCCIO) cybersecurity benchmarking project and was a founding member of the Canadian Shared Security Operations Centre (CanSSOC) steering committee. Prior to joining TMU, Brian worked at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada and the National Archives of Canada.
Cameron Sielski
Manager of Technology Strategy and Transformation, Deloitte
Cameron Sielski is a manager with Deloitte’s Technology Strategy and Transformation practice. With a focus on government and public sector, Cameron’s work centers around distilling complex and abstract information into clear, actionable insights to facilitate executive decision making. His project experience has been focused on assisting organizations with designing and implementing transformation management capabilities, large scale strategic technology sourcing, and developing organization-wide technology and digital strategies. Cameron lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with his wife and dog, and on his best days you can find him exploring BC’s vast natural beauty.
Session details
A special keynote presentation on the work to date in developing TMU’s inaugural digital strategy.
Jessica Blackwood
Acting Associate Director of IT, McMaster University Faculty of Science
Jessica Blackwood is the Acting Associate Director of IT for McMaster University’s Faculty of Science, where she oversees operational IT services, project management, and digital knowledge translation initiatives for the university’s largest faculty. In this role, she collaborates closely with institutional IT partners to deliver secure, reliable, and stakeholder-informed technology solutions, with a focus on making cybersecurity best practices accessible and relevant to faculty, staff, and students. Jessica’s contributions to inclusive and secure digital environments have also been recognized through the 2022 Canadian University Council of Chief Information Officers (CUCCIO) Community Award for advancing digital accessibility in education at McMaster University and the 2025 CUCCIO Collaboration Award as a member of the Inclusion in Cybersecurity Canada (ICC) team.
Art Exner
Associate Vice-President (Information Services) at the University of Regina
Art is responsible for charting the strategic information technology plans for the University of Regina to achieve improved business outcomes in an increasingly client-centric service model. Art is also the Chair of the Saskatchewan Research Network (SRNET) Board of Directors and is a board member of the Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research, Industry and Education (CANARIE) and the Canadian University Council of Chief Information Officers (CUCCIO). Art is CIO liaison to the CUCCIO Information Security Special Interest Group and a contributor to the CUCCIO Leadership Development Program.
Nathan Corwin
Chief Information Security and Digital Trust Officer at the University of Toronto
Nathan brings over 25 years of experience in higher education IT and cyber security, most recently from Arizona State University (ASU(, where he led enterprise cybersecurity initiatives supporting a large and complex institution. Nathan’s career at ASU spanned technical operations, service delivery, and enterprise leadership. Most recently, he served as ASU’s Executive Director for Cyber Security in Enterprise Technology, where he operationalized technology and strategy to support the security and resilience of the ASU Public Enterprise. He joined the University of Toronto in March of 2026, bringing a focus on building digital trust through collaboration, clarity, and shared responsibility.
Session details
Cybersecurity Risk Management in Higher Education: Are We Making Decisions and Are They the Right Ones?
If complexity is the enemy of security, it’s no wonder the higher education sector is so difficult to secure. Bicameral governance, a regularly changing set of leaders, severe fiscal constraints, distributed responsibility for computing infrastructure and support at our institutions and a growing number of available online services all contribute to these cybersecurity challenges.
Join us for a panel discussion where we’ll discuss how cybersecurity governance can and should work in our sector. Our panelists will share best practices at different institutions in Canada and abroad, the challenges of communicating and managing risk in our organizations and leave with insights into what we can all do to improve cybersecurity risk management.
Moderated by Brian Lesser, Chief Information Officer at Toronto Metropolitan University.