WealthChat – Global Wealth and Capital Market Podcast Series

The financial services and wealth industry is rapidly evolving. This is why it has become increasingly important to stay in-tune with current trends. Introducing Global Wealth and Capital Markets first-ever podcast series, WealthChat.

Join Lubna Bibi (Global Wealth’s Research Lead), as she interviews and dives deeper with industry leaders on current wealth insights and trends globally.

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Episode 1 – Drew Brown
Episode 2 - Bryan Sachdeva

In this episode, Lubna speaks with Bryan Sachdeva, VP of CGI's Wealth360 Digital Wealth Platform. They discuss trends in advisor technology solutions, Platformization, innovations being pursued for CGI's Digital Wealth Platform, and how AI and machine learning can help firms achieve hyper-personalization.
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Episode 3 – Kelly Walsh

In this episode, Lubna speaks with Kelly Walsh, Director Consulting Expert within Global Wealth. They discuss some of the interesting trends Kelly observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, innovations in advisor technologies and growth in philanthropy.

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Episode 4 - Marcel Schroder

In this episode, Lubna speaks with Marcel Schroder, Director Consulting Services within Global Wealth. They discuss trends in the industry, digital adoption, what it takes to be innovative and more importantly how to retain innovation.
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Episode 5 - Alain Egre and Gilly Green

In the latest episode of our WealthChat podcast series, two UK-based wealth experts discuss the importance of assessing and understanding the trends amongst a given market.
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Episode 6 - Nidhi Laroiya

In this episode, Lubna speaks with Nidhi Laroiya. Nidhi is a Director for consulting Services within Global Wealth and Capital Markets. Nidhi spoke about Human Centric Design (HCD) and a variety of subtopics such as: the value HCD provides, how firms and advisors can incorporate HCD into their businesses, and how HCD can accelerate innovation.
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Episode 7 - Voice of the Advisor - Part 1

In Part 1 of our special Voice of the Advisor (VOA) series, Lubna speaks with Kelly Walsh, Drew Brown and Marcel Schroder, all senior members of our Consulting Services group within Global Wealth & Capital Markets . They discuss survey results with a focus on what advisors want from their firms in terms of technology and support. They also speak about the main differences in male and female advisory practices, digital enablement, and financial wellness.
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Episode 8 - Voice of the Advisor - Part 2

In part 2 of our Voice of the Advisor series, Lubna speaks with Bryan Waldeva and Maulik Vora, both senior members of our Product group within Global Wealth & Capital Markets. They discuss the actions firms need to take in order to meet current and future advisor needs. They also highlight some of the obstacles companies face when introducing new technologies and how they can be overcome.
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Episode 9 - Voice of the Advisor - Part 3

In our concluding Voice of the Advisor (VOA) series episode, Lubna speaks with Tom Hayko, Jay Thakore, and Aimee Mendez. Tom & Jay are senior members of our Global Wealth & Capital Markets group. They discuss the action firms need to take to implement the solutions that would meet the needs of the current and future advisor and client. They also speak about data security, personalization, and the partnership ecosystem.
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Episode 11 - Mathieu Lajante
Episode 12 - ESG: Problems & Solutions

In this episode, Lubna speaks with Bob Willard from Sustainability Advantage, Eric Wetlaufer from TwinRiver Capital, and Dirk Matten from Schulich Business School. They discuss the issues surrounding ESG and how they can be resolved. It's a comprehensive discussion that addresses issues such as regulatory frameworks, greenwashing, ESG scoring, technology, government involvement, and the goals of developed and developing nations. Are governments responding appropriately? What part do businesses play and how can impactful changes be made?
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Episode 13  – 2022 Year-In-Review with Jamie Holland

In this special Year-In-Review episode, Lubna speaks with Jamie Holland, Senior Vice-President of Canada Industry Solutions at CGI. They discuss the current states of the Wealth Management and Insurance industries, and the trends that have led to the events that occurred in 2022 along with their future impacts. Jamie was able to provide a unique lens when speaking about prevalent topics such as platformization, data, AI/ML, blockchain, regtech, and financial planning. How will the wealth industry continue to evolve? What does the future hold for the insurance industry?
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Episode 14  – Transformation of Operations

In this episode Lubna speaks with Len Brooks & Taje Mohabir, both senior leaders at CGI. They speak about Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) & Intellectual Property (IP), and CGI's capabilities in these areas. They also discuss automation, streamlining processes, modernization, smart bots/chats, and the potential of ChatGPT. Is it possible to modernize existing technology while mitigating risk? What does the future back office look like?
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Episode 15  – Open Banking: Canada's Journey

In this episode Lubna speaks with Roy Kao & David Hooper, both senior leaders at CGI. They speak about Open Banking (OB) and the progress that's been made in the Canadian Market. They also discuss how OB was implemented in other geographies, data protection and consumer rights, as well as how the market can become more competitive with OB. What is the hybrid model approach being taken by Canada? What lessons can we learn from the UK & Australia? How will consumers ultimately benefit?
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Episode 16  – AI Language Models: The Present & Future

In this episode Lubna speaks with Chris Juryn & James Aricibasi, both senior leaders at CGI. They speak about AI language models and the progress that's been made in a relatively short amount of time. They also discuss the implications of using language models such as ChatGpt, how will our lives change? How can language models be employed for activities such as portfolio management, taxation, and retirement planning? How can bias be eliminated or at least greatly reduced? What's the difference between ChatGpt 3 & 4? How far away are we from Artificial Generalized Intelligence (AGI)?
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Episode 17  – AI/ML, Data, VR, Robots & The Future

In this episode Lubna speaks with Ebrahim Bagheri & Naimul Khan, both professors at Toronto Metropolitan University. They speak about AI language models, robots, VR, and the progress that's been made in a relatively short amount of time. They also discuss the implications of bias data being used to train language models and how the industry can improve the practices currently being employed. Ethics is an important topic of discussion when it comes to these types of technologies, Ebrahim leads a technology ethics lab and he shares his insights and best practices being taught to students. Naimul shared his insights when it comes to VR technologies and social media, and how we can effectively utilize these technologies. How can we ethically have technology advancements? What are the systematic issues that cause gender biases in search engine results and how can this be resolved? What is VR immersion and what are the consequences of it?

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Episode 18  – Michael Simonetta
Episode 19  – The Advisory Landscape & Financial Wellness

In this episode Lubna speaks with Dan Richards, professor of marketing at University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management, and Maulik Vora, Product Director at CGI. They discuss effective strategies advisors utilize to establish trust with their clients, the new era of expectations being ushered in by tech firms, cases for GPT 3 & 4, results from our Voice of the Advisor Survey, and the impacts of financial wellness on advisors and clients.

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Episode 20 – 2023 Year-In-Review with Jamie Holland

In this episode Lubna speaks with Jamie Holland, Senior Vice-President of Canada Industry Solutions at CGI. They discuss the major wealth trends for 2023, the Voice Of The Advisor survey, the launch of myAutoPlus, and Jamie's expectations for 2024. What does the future hold for digital assets? How will advisors adapt their business to the changing demographics, and how will women impact the industry? In 2023 AI dominated the conversations, the question now is; how will these discussions translate into actions?

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Episode 21 – Gen AI: The Present & Future

In this episode, Lubna speaks with Murtaza Haider, professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. They speak about Gen AI; what it is and how it's currently impacting our everyday lives. Murtaza shares his thoughts on the risk of AI, and how it can be used to solve some of the big problems we're currently facing. AI Bias is a real problem, how can it effectively be eliminated? They also discuss the various ways in which AI can assist such as healthcare, onboarding, training, and allowing people to focus on meaningful tasks and activities. Do the AI pros outweigh the cons? How can we effectively leverage technology to create a better and more just world for everyone?

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Learn more about our speakers

Bryan Sachdeva

Bryan is an innovative wealth management technology leader with a track record of success in bringing IP solutions to market and managing the delivery of transformational programs. Bryan continues to lead CGI’s global Wealth360 Digital Wealth Platform product evolution and market expansion across Canada, USA, UK & EU.

Drew Brown

An accomplished and award-winning Wealth profession with 25 years of experience and an extensive set of expertise across the Financial Services Industry. A proven track record of defining strategy and driving complex strategic initiatives, enabling and enhancing the end-to-end client sales and engagement model.

Kelly Walsh

A results-driven wealth management leader who brings a wide range of knowledge and experience to organizations. Over 25 years of experience in roles from business development to consultant to coach have led to a strong understanding of the needs and challenges facing firms, financial advisors and their clients.

Marcel Schroder

Marcel is a Global Financial Services executive with expertise in connecting Fintech and Wealth Management and broad experience building profitable start-up businesses, restructuring under performing divisions, building divisional operating models and streamlining operations.

John Tirpak - Director, Consulting Services

John is responsible for new business development as part of CGI US as it relates to helping Financial Institutions find solutions to complex Wealth Management technology problems through deep consultative engagements.

Kenneth Bachulis - Director, Consulting Services

An experienced wealth technology executive, specializing in Advisory and Asset Management. Areas of focus include portfolio management, trade creation & execution, goals based planning, performance measurement and operational efficiency. Ken has a proven track record of working with clients on new product launches across the spectrum of advisory service including Unified Management Accounts, Separately Managed Accounts and various Rep Directed products.

Nidhi Laroiya - Director, Consulting Services

Nidhi is a Director for consulting Services within Global Wealth and Capital Markets.

Maulik Vora - Director, Product strategy

Maulik is a fintech product leader who enjoys building technology solutions for wealth managers. Maulik has defined and led advisor and client experience strategies to enable digital transformation at global private banks

Aimee Mendez - Director, User-Centered Design

Aimee is a pragmatic product experience strategist with 20 years of leadership and hands-on design experience in translating business needs into simple, meaningful, and intuitive customer-focused design solutions.

Jay Thakore - VP Consulting Services

Jay is a solution-driven IT executive with over 17 years of industry experience and comprehensive experience in digital transformation and delivery, system integration and IT transformation.

Tom Hayko - Director, Consulting Services

Tom has a 31-year background in the development of enterprise application for a range of clients in industries ranging from telecommunications, public sector, insurance, banking and wealth management. Tom enjoys finding solutions and bring new technology to bear to help solve problems that clients encounter.

Mathieu Lajante - Professor of Marketing, Ted Rogers School of Management

Mathieu Lajante is an expert in customers' emotions and psychophysiology applied to marketing research. He studied the concepts of aesthetic and utilitarian emotion for social and commercial marketing communication effectiveness. He is now carrying out a research program called "The firm's empathic capacity" to study firm-customer emotional connectedness throughout the technology-infused customer journey.

Jamie Holland

Senior Vice-President, Canada Industry Solutions

Jamie Holland has overall responsibility for leading Canada’s Industry Solutions business unit focused on delivering and growing our intellectual property(IP) suite in Canada and across the globe. Jamie has accountability for multiple IP solutions used by leading financial services firms.

David Hooper

VP, Open Banking & Payments Consulting

David is an accomplished Banking and Payments executive with in-depth knowledge acquired within the Canadian and Global banking landscape. He is a subject matter expert on open banking / open finance, real-time payments, and innovative overlay. He also leads CGI’s Canadian Open Banking and Payments Practice with a focus on helping clients take their existing strategies and create pragmatic, executable roadmaps to modernize and digitally transform their business.

Chris Juryn

VP, Head of Emerging Technologies

Chris Juryn leads CGI’s Emerging Technology Practice with a focus on bringing new and exciting technologies to organizations that drive business value and outcomes. Chris helps our client’s cut through the noise and hype of these technologies and find the practical, pragmatic nuggets that can make a difference in the organization. One area of focus for his team is in Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Analytics, which has exploded over the past few years. 

James Aricibasi

Director, Emerging Technologies

James Aricibasi, B.Eng & MBA, is a technology strategist, data sciengineer, and an ardent AI + BI fan. In the last 30 years, his work spanned prescriptive analytics, credit risk modeling, quantitative forecasting, recommendation engines, portfolio optimization and fraud detection. At CGI, he leads teams delivering Machine Learning solutions to financial and other institutions, using big data and big compute. As a frequent participant and speaker in internal and public events, James enjoys applying ML & AI in novel ways, especially in finance, mining, energy & utilities.

Roy Kao

Practice Lead, Open Finance & Innovations

Kao is a recognized executive and advisor in Canadian financial services innovation, transformation, and development. Roy helps CGI clients advancing strategic business and services innovations for banking, wealth management, capital markets, and insurance clients addressing opportunities and challenges. He also currently serves as a member of the Advisory Board for Open Banking Expo and is a Board Member at Open Finance Network Canada (OFNC).

Michael Simonetta

Chairman at Evolve Funds & Founder at Drive for Dreams Foundation

Michael is an Experienced Investor, Entrepreneur and Business Builder with a demonstrated history of successfully founding, developing, and operating companies which achieve high growth and strong value creation. He is an accomplished Problem Solver and Risk Manager with very strong analytical skills able to tackle the most complex problems and develop effective solutions.

Ebrahim Bagheri

Professor, Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering

Ebrahim Bagheri is a Professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University where he holds a Canada Research Chair in Social Information Retrieval and an NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Social Media Analytics. He is the Director of the NSERC CREATE program on the Responsible Development of AI.

Dr. Naimul Khan

Professor, Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering

Dr. Naimul Khan is an associate professor of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering and the Master of Digital Media at the Toronto Metropolitan University, where he directs the Multimedia Research Laboratory. His research focuses on user-centric intelligent systems combining AI and Augmented/Virtual Reality. He has a rich history of industry collaboration with media and healthcare companies in Toronto and beyond.

Dan Richards

Professor of marketing at University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management

Voted best prof by graduating Rotman MBA students. Help lead charities in Toronto and Africa. Built and sold two startups. Led public company turnaround. Author of best-selling books.Dan teaches Executive MBA and Commerce courses and also teaches Intro Marketing to 300 Arts students.

Maulik Vora

Director Product Strategy at CGI

Maulik is an engineer at heart, and he enjoys building data-driven products that solve a customer problem, deliver a delightful customer experience and drive business benefits. He loves being at the intersection of business and technology and believes that well-designed technology solutions can help us lead a better life.

Murtaza Haider

Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, Columnist, and Data Scientist

Murtaza is a professor of real estate management, data sicence, and analytics at the Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). He is also a Director of Internationalization at TMU, being responsible for assiting the decanal team in developing and implementing an internaitonalization strategy.