GITCon 2023 Speakers

keynote speaker

Camila kukulski

Level Designer, Ubisoft Toronto

Camila discovered her passion for video games while pursuing a Bachelor of Photography at Toronto Metropolitan University. After graduating, she continued her studies at Sheridan College where she received a certificate in Level Design and has since been making video games in both indie and AAA studios. Proud to be the first female winner of Ubisoft’s NEXT Level Design competition, Camila strives to encourage diversity in videogame development. She is now a member of the Level Design team on an unannounced project at Ubisoft Toronto.

Audrey ho

4th year Waterloo Computer Science Co-op Student

Audrey Ho is a fourth year computer science co-op student at the University of Waterloo. After graduation this April, she will be moving to New York City to work as a Software Engineer at PDT Partners, a quantitative investment manager and model-driven trading group. At school, she loves chatting with younger students and organizing events for them as a Student Executive and former Chair on the Women in Computer Science Committee. Outside of school, she has completed six internships: five in software engineering at Microsoft, PDT Partners, Coinbase, Snapchat, and Deloitte, and one in infrastructure technical program management at Facebook (now Meta). In her spare time, she enjoys working out and hanging out with her six pets (three cats and three dogs!). Audrey is incredibly excited to come speak at GITCon as she was one of the organizers at the first GITCon in 2018.

Christine Kim

Senior Consultant, Management Consulting KPMG

Christine is a Senior Consultant in Management Consulting at KPMG in Canada, specializing in digital transformations within the healthcare industry. After completing a BSc and MSc in Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University, she has pivoted her career to help clients elevate the patient & provider experience through digital strategy and enablement, resulting in improvements in access to care, quality of care, patient safety, and clinical outcomes. As an active member of the KPMG Women in Technology Community, Christine is excited to return to her alma mater as a UTS alumna to share her experience of entering and thriving in the tech industry without a technical educational background.

Penny Li

Senior Consultant, KPMG Forensic Practice

Penny is a Senior Consultant in KPMG in Canada’s Forensic practice. Penny is a U.S. Certified Public Accountant and started at KPMG in the tax group working with a variety of corporate and trust clients prior to joining the Forensic practice. She has been involved with forensic investigation files involving large Canadian organizations including schools and financial institutions. In her free time, Penny is a blogger on Medium, a contributor on Kaggle and an R dashboard developer.

samantha pramanick

Product Manager, Thoughtworks Canada

Sam (UTS '12) graduated with a BASc in Nanotechnology Engineering from the University of Waterloo. As part of the co-op program at Waterloo, Sam learned how to code in order to increase her chances of landing a co-op job every semester. Upon graduation five years later, Sam chose the tech consulting route so that she could combine her experience in tech with her desire to work closely with people. Currently, Sam is a product manager at Thoughtworks Canada. Outside of that, she loves lifting weights, being active, reading, making and eating food, and spending time with her friends/family. 

Sonya Gill

Founder and CEO of THE LNK

Sonya has over 12 years of executive and marketing experience, one successful exit, and is now building THE LNK, an online marketplace that connects ethnically diverse brands overseas with consumers in North America. THE LNK vets thousands of indie fashion and beauty labels for quality and logistics excellence. They compile only the best products from brands overseas and provide them with powerful marketing and AI tools to help them succeed in a saturated market.

Jen Schrock

Sr. Manager / Director, Product & Partner Management Operations & Strategic Initiatives at CDW Canada

Jen is responsible for leadership, insight, and structure to operations and strategic initiatives within CDW’s Product and Partner Management (PPM) organization that drives meaningful growth. She oversees partner investment and success, PPM analytics and insights, business project management, and horizontal and vertical solution development in partnership with key CDW stakeholders from PPM, Sales, Marketing, Business Transformation, and technical teams. Jen also serves as a Canadian ambassador to CDW’s Supplier Diversity initiative, a committee member in Women’s Business Enterprises (WBE) Canada and an incredible Mentor.

Lisa Naumoski

Supervisor, Compliance Lead, Services Operations at CDW Canada

Lisa arrives with 20+ years in various operational roles and is an exceptional problem–solver by providing solutions and governance. She is an adaptive analytical thinker and has worked in Technical Companies and business teams in Operational roles as a Program Controller, Leading teams in complex strategic programs. Lisa worked with technical teams on Integrated System environments and projects within the Telecom, SAP, Internet Solutions and Agile. Lisa is a passionate ambassador at CDW as a Co- lead, Director on the Unite BRG and Leading the WIT- Women in Tech Committee by igniting, mentoring, and learning to stand together as one.

Samara Melanson

Vice President of Production, Guru Studio

Samara is a twenty year veteran of the film and television industry. She’s led a variety of animated and live-action film, commercial and episodic projects for studios such as Spin VFX, Intelligent Creatures, c.o.r.e.,Thought Cafe/Futuretalk and Technicolor. In addition to her extensive production background, Sam is a seasoned and successful entrepreneur, and brings a thorough understanding of what it takes to bring innovative, creative-led projects to life. In her role as VP of Production at Guru Studio, Samara leads Guru's 300+ crew on top tier productions including our the hit series "Paw Patrol" and HBO's new limited series "Charlotte's Web".

Derlaine Brito

Manager, KPMG Tax Transformation

Derlaine is a Manager within KPMG’s Tax Transformation practice in Canada. She brings 9 years of experience leading strategic Lean and Digital transformation projects for multinational organizations in Brazil, USA, and Canada. Derlaine is an engineer by background, involved with hands-on activities for process changes, bringing in new ideas, leading problem discovery and problem-solving meetings, and coordinating process map workshops. Her experience is underpinned by her business transformation, project management, and lean six sigma background.

Alexandra Parkin

Senior Consultant, KPMG Cyber Security

Alex is a Senior Consultant in KPMG in Canada’s Cyber Security practice. She has been involved in the strategy, governance, and implementation of cyber security programs and has assisted clients across a variety of industries transform their data protection practices. Prior to joining KPMG, Alex gained experience as a project manager in customer solutions and a program manager, implementing a flagship data protection program at a global organization.

Ebun Segun

Software Engineer, Shopify

Ebun is a  full stack software engineer with experience spanning across consulting, transportation, fintech, and e-commerce. She has a degree in Computer Science & Biomedical Computing and currently works on Fulfillments at Shopify. Some of her greatest passions include reading, writing, fashion designing, indoor/outdoor gardening and mentoring high school girls through STEM focused programs.

Adam Diallo

Sr. Manager, Customer Success at CDW Canada. Co-Director of Professional Development | UNITE Canada

Adam is a Sr. Customer Success Manager at CDW. With over 10 years’ experience working in the tech industry, she has a diverse background in Sales, Marketing and Leadership. Adam also currently serves as co-director of Professional Development for CDW's UNITE BRG, where she supports in “Fostering Meaningful Human Connections”. She is passionate about developing and elevating team members in addition to leading with a strategic mindset. A strong believer in mentoring the next generation of women leaders.

Kaitee Stuart

Sr Analyst, Cyber Security | Risk Advisory at CDW Canada

Kaitee specializes as senior analyst in network penetration testing and social engineering. She has a Bachelor of Technology in Informatics and Security and is an Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP). She serves on the Women In Tech Committee by learning, sharing and taking part on events for women at CDW. During her spare time, Kaitee enjoys reading, cooking, and spending time outdoors hiking and camping.