Data and AI: Will Regulation Drive or Slow Growth?
Roundtable Luncheon with Natalie Heisler, Patricia Kosseim and Elissa Strome
Sponsored by:
C.D. Howe Institute events and webinars are open to members and their guests.
Please follow this link or contact events@cdhowe.org to register.
Natalie Heisler, Managing Director, Responsible AI, Accenture Applied Intelligence
Natalie is a managing director in Accenture’s Applied Intelligence - Global Responsible AI practice. In her role, Natalie supports organizations to become responsible by design, helping clients scale AI for business value in a way that fairly impacts people and society. Natalie began her career as a statistician, and prior to her work at Accenture, built consulting practices for analytics software and solutions providers including Qlik, SAP, MicroStrategy and SAS.
Natalie recently completed a graduate degree in the governance of artificial intelligence, focused on the policy, legal and regulatory aspects of the control of algorithmic bias at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Natalie also holds a M.Sc. in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.
Patricia Kosseim, Commissioner, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario
Patricia Kosseim brings to the IPC significant experience and a wealth of knowledge in the areas of privacy and access law, having worked in public, private and health sectors, and across various jurisdictions.
Prior to joining the IPC, Patricia was counsel in Osler’s Privacy and Data Management Group where she provided strategic advice to clients on matters of privacy, data governance, and access law. She also led a number of thought leadership initiatives as national co-leader of Osler’s AccessPrivacy knowledge platform.
For more than a decade, Patricia served as senior general counsel and director general at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada in Ottawa. During that period, she was responsible for advancing a number of major cases before the federal courts and the Supreme Court of Canada; advising on critical privacy investigations; appearing before parliamentary committees; developing national and international policies; leading a national research funding program; and, overseeing a technology analysis team and laboratory.
She began her career in Montreal practicing in the areas of health law, civil litigation, human rights, privacy, and labour and employment with a leading national law firm and subsequently held executive positions at Genome Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
She has taught at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law and her board memberships included the Board of Governors of the Ottawa Hospital; chair of the Board of Directors of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute; vice-chair of the Research Integrity Committee of les Fonds de recherche du Quebec; member of the National DNA Databank Advisory Committee.
Patricia obtained her business and law degrees from McGill University in Montreal, and a Master’s Degree in Medical Law and Ethics from King’s College, University of London.
Elissa Strome, Executive Director, Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
Elissa Strome is the Executive Director of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy at CIFAR. She works with leaders at Canada’s three national AI Institutes in Edmonton (Amii), Montreal (Mila), and Toronto (Vector Institute) and across the country to advance Canada’s leadership in AI research, training and innovation. She is a champion of equity, diversity and inclusion in science, and an ambassador for Canada’s position in AI research, innovation, and policy internationally. Elissa is a member of the federal government’s AI Advisory Council, where she co-chairs the Public Awareness Working Group, and the OECD Network of Experts on AI.
Elissa completed her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of British Columbia. Following a post-doc at Lund University, in Sweden, she decided to pursue a career in research strategy, policy, and leadership. From 2008 – 2017 she held senior leadership positions at University of Toronto’s Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation, advancing major institutional strategic research priorities, including establishing and leading the SOSCIP research consortium. She recently earned her black belt in taekwondo.
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