Wilfreda Edward is the Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience (CCNDR), where she leads national efforts to strengthen digital capacity across Canada’s nonprofit sector. With more than 13 years in the federal public service, she held senior roles advancing enterprise data strategy, governance, and digital transformation initiatives. Her work focused on building sustainable data infrastructure, strengthening privacy and accountability frameworks, and supporting evidence-informed decision-making at scale. Today, Wilfreda brings that systems-level experience to nonprofit leadership, working with funders, policymakers, and sector partners to advance cybersecurity readiness, responsible data stewardship, and ethical AI adoption. She is known for bridging public policy and practice, helping organizations build the confidence and capability to use technology in service of their missions. Wilfreda also serves on the Board of the Canadian Black Policy Network, and draws on her Creole heritage and love of storytelling in her leadership.

Ms. McGowan founded Cyber Nations Foundation in 2019, a non-profit organization created to promote cyber literacy as a fundamental human right. Cyber Nations Foundation works to democratize access to cybersecurity training, tools, and solutions that ensures digital success for all. Ms. McGowan is a global information technology and cybersecurity leader who has worked in the technology industry for several organizations such as Deloitte, Metropolitan Police Services, North York General Hospital, Bank of Montreal (BMO), The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) and Protexxa. At BMO, Ms. McGowan served as the Chief Information Officer, Enterprise Technology Employee Experience, and at TD, she was the Global Executive Officer for Cybersecurity Operations. Her dedication and impact have also been recognized at the highest levels nationally and internationally. In addition to being named Top 100 Global Leaders in Fintech by FinTech Magazine, Ms. McGowan was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2025, and she received the Order of Ontario in 2026.

Sharlene has been reporting on responsible business, environmental sustainability and technology in the UK and Canada since 2018. She has worked with various organizations during this time, including the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University, AIGA Eye on Design, Social Enterprise UK and Nature is a Human Right. Sharlene moved to Toronto in early 2023 to join the Future of Good team, where she has been reporting at the intersections of technology, data and social purpose work. Her reporting has spanned several subject areas, including AI policy, cybersecurity, ethical data collection, and technology partnerships between the private, public and third sectors.